November 2017: Elyne Mitchell Writing Awards

Fire, by Brenda Hall, Short-Listed Open Short Story

Elyne Mitchell’s Silver Brumby series was a stand-out favourite in my family book-shelves, so when her name popped up in a newsletter from NSW Writer’s Centre, I decided to try my hand at short story writing.

The theme for 2017 was ‘Local stories, people, places and events’. I spent my secondary school years on a farm near Albury, on the NSW-Victorian border, and my sister’s family lives in the district still, raising sheep and cattle. My story, Fire is entirely fictional, but it spotlights a traumatic experience that is all too recognisable by those who make their living raising livestock in this fire-prone country.

Fire was published in a booklet with other short-listed entries, by the Corryong Neighbourhood Centre, in 2017.