News

Budding writers impress at Friends of Benalla Library awards

By Benalla Ensign

Aug 31, 2026

The Friends of Benalla Library announced the winners of its annual writing competition this week. Photo: Matt Weaver.

Faces were glowing with excitement, anticipation, delight and pride as 96 people, including entrants and supporters gathered at Benalla Library for a special awards ceremony.

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The 2026 Friends of Benalla Library writing competition aims to encourage and promote budding writers in the local community.

A FOBL spokesperson said the criteria for entry was to use one of nine ‘story starters’, to comply with the allocated word limit and for the piece of writing to be the original work of the entrant.

“The teams of judges spent a great deal of time reading and re-reading the entries before making their final decision for each category,” the spokesperaon said.

“The judges were impressed with the creative and original responses to the story starters.

FOBL secretary Deb Saunders conducted the ceremony and president Geraldine McCorkell presented the prizes.

The winning entries were:

Year 3/4 - 1st Evie Hawthorne, 2nd Kauta Schwartz, 3rd Ellie McTaggart. Commendations - Charlotte Gee and Amber Foletta.
Year5/6 - 1st Chloe Edney, 2nd Kaldon Brown, 3rd Mia Pollard. Commendation - Isabelle Maher.
Year 7/8 - 1st Marcus Freeman, 2nd Elizabeth (Toph) Nelson-Charles, 3rd Chelsea Sinclair.
Years 9-11 - 1st Felicity Richards, 2nd Charlotte Beal, 3rd Ella Jenkins.

Open - 1st Matthew King, 2nd Tim Arendt, 3rd Carla Gardner. Commendations - Alex McDonald and Tip Turnbull.

The FOBL spokesperson said its members were pleased with the number and quality of entries.

“We anticipate that the success of this competition will encourage potential writers to further their interest and develop their writing skills,” the spokesperson said.