A verse narrative, a creative non-fiction essay, a work of poetry and an experimental fiction piece make up some of the staggering creativity in this year’s Monash Undergraduate Prize for Creative Writing shortlist. From a total of 342 entries, these 15 pieces represent the extraordinary quality of undergraduate writing taking place in Australia and New Zealand today.

The shortlist will be judged by Alice Grundy (co-founder of Seizure), Nic Low (author of Arms Race and Other Stories) and Stuart Grant (Monash University), with the winner announced at the opening night of this year’s Emerging Writers’ Festival on June 19. The winner will receive $4000 and will be published online in Kill Your Darlings and in print in Verge, Monash University’s creative writing anthology. The highest-placed Monash student will win $1000, bringing the total possible prize pool to $5000 – Australia’s richest undergraduate writing prize.

The 2018 shortlist is:

Caitlin Carr – The Paisley Witches
Rubee Dano – The Dying Woman
Andrew Dopper – The Wall
Ainsley Ewart – Wo-Match
George Ganitis – Family Book
Naima Ibrahim – The Mathematician
Ann Jackson – Counterfeit Smile
Alison Kelly – Samuel
Dai-An Le – Dragon Teeth
Stella Maynard – On garages (it ends as it begins, in motion)
Zoe McDonald – River Skin
Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga – A World Without Oranges
Kerrin O’Sullivan – Remnants
Aileen Westbrook – Mistook
Ziyang Zhang – The Tea Party

The Monash Undergraduate Prize for Creative Writing is proudly supported by Monash University Faculty of the Arts.