Announcing the Totally Lit Micro Fiction Prize Winners!

Music. In the spirit of reconciliation, I acknowledge the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community.

I pay my respects to their elders, past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Highland peoples today. Welcome to Totally Lit, the podcast celebrating reading, writing and creating literature. I'm your host, Kai Garvey. Thank you for listening. It's the moment we've all been waiting for. I am announcing the winners of the Totally Lit Micro Fiction Prize.

Very excited. I had had in my mind an elaborate episode to deliver the winners out to you all, but I've decided to keep it short and sweet instead.

So what I'm going to do is run through our winners, first announcing the Carer's Scholarship, and then third, second and our winner and then all our other winners because we did have so many prizes will be released on the website this evening as well and then you'll start seeing your names popping up in social media as well. I first off really wanted to thank my wonderful judges Lauren, Geneve, Pam and Cheryl for all the work they've put into reading the stories.

The quality that we received was outstanding. You guys can write. So they put in a lot of work and I'll also give everybody feedback on their entries. All the winning entries have some feedback. So I'm going to start with the Carers Scholarship. Now this is very generously donated by Edwina Shaw from the Relax and Write Retreat. This prize is a 30-minute creative coaching call. And a 50% scholarship place at a 2025 Relax and Write Retreat.

I am actually going to kin the other 50% of this prize as a donation from Totally Lit. And the very lucky winner of this prize is Kylie Burton for her story, Peri Peri. And Kylie is also a wonderful carer. So congratulations, Kylie. Now, third place... Third prize is $250 and a written assessment of 1,000 words valued at $150 donated by Danny V from Larrikin House. And this prize goes to Casey Keogh for her beautiful story, My Shadows Keeper. Second prize.

Second prize is $500 from QBD Books in the form of your gift voucher. Thank you so much, QBD, for donating this prize. This goes to Pam Makin for What We Lose on the Swings, which was a very beautiful story. Now, first prize, $500 and a one-hour coaching session valued at $250, donated by Kelly M. Cox. Thank you so much, Kelly, for this donation. This is from her business, Strong Female Protagonist, and the winner is Anna Hughes for her beautiful story Tilting at Windmills.

It was such an outstanding piece, all the judges. There was no deliberation. It was definitely the winner. So congratulations, lovely writers, and just thank you for sharing your work with me. I had a pleasure reading all the stories that we received and I did spend a lot of time scratching my head about how to separate you all because there was just so much talent that we received.

So I will be in touch with all the winners to connect you with your prize sponsors so you can get your prizes and so look out for an email from me and once again, congratulations all.

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