The Art2Words Writing Prize

The Art2Words Writing Prize is an annual writing competition at The Friends’ School. Founded in 1887, The Friends’ School, an independent, coeducational day and boarding school located in the heart of Hobart, Tasmania, is the largest Quaker School in the world (and the only Quaker School in Australia), offering education programs from early learning through to Year 12.

Established in 2020, the Art2Words Writing Prize is based on the ancient Greek practice of ekphrasis (responding to an art work in words) and involves students writing either a short story or poem in response to student art work. The art work which is inspiration for the creative writing is that of the winner of school's Visual Arts Prize of the previous year. The Visual Arts Prize is an annual award, granted to a senior art student for their consistently exceptional approach to their practice, rigour of research and ideation, complexity and sophistication of the ideas and issues they explore, and the professional quality of their exhibited works.

The 2021 winner was Year 12 IB Visual Arts student Alia Haider, whose series of mixed media works titled, Lost in Translation, will be the stimulus for the writing prize.

The writing competition will be held in 2022. Prizes are sponsored by The Hobart Bookshop and, in community partnership with Forty South Publishing, the artwork is available to view online via the link below.

View the artwork

(Read the inspired entries below)

Secondary (Yrs 7-9) Poetry Section

Short-listed:

‘Young’ by Clementine Chatto (Year 7)

‘The Chair at the Head of the Table’ by Isabel Adams (Year 9)

Winner:
'Knowledge of the Trees', Isla Younger (Year 9)

Secondary  (Yrs 7-9) Short Story Section

Short-listed:

‘Can’ by Charlie Melrose (Year 9)

‘Venture to Earth’ by Amelia Cooper (Year 8)

Winner:
‘The Darkness Creeping’ by Isabel Adams (Year 9)

Senior Secondary  (Yrs 10-12) Poetry Section

Short-listed:

‘How do I know who I am?’ by Gipsy Rugen (Year 11)

‘Quod Video’ by Jack Hughes (Year 10)

Winner:
‘Grey Clouds Loom Above’ by Sahansa Udawatta (Year 10)

Senior Secondary (Yrs 10-12) Short Story Section 

Short-listed:

‘Cretan Memories’ by Jack Hughes (Year 10)

‘Smuggler of Tsundoku’ by Zoe Gangell (Year 12)

Winner:
‘Ten Pound Poms’ by Harriet Carter (Year 10)