The student fiction winner of Writer 2025, Stella Weston.
What started as a simple class writing exercise became a winning short story for emerging writer Stella Weston.
Her story, Highlights, has won the student fiction section of Writer 2025, the University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka’s annual creative writing competition – which this year had the prompt “Being and Belonging”.
Stella’s story captures the year in the life of a student who has left home and is finding life hard in a Dunedin flat.
“I started this piece in ENGL320 when we were asked to note down five things we saw on our walk to class. I listed things like ‘broken bottles’, ‘couches in driveways’, and then realised that these things didn’t fit under the typical ‘homely vibe’ for most people,” she says.
“These pre-existing negative connotations were an obstacle in this piece as I wanted to show the protagonist growing into Dunedin and learning to love it.”
The resulting story impressed this year’s judge, Dunedin author Breton Dukes, who named Stella the student fiction winner alongside the other category winners:
Student poetry: Ellen Murray
Student fiction: Stella Weston
Staff poetry: Anna Williams
Staff fiction: Jennifer Haugh
Alumni poetry: Tui Bevin
Alumni fiction: Ellen Bernstein
- Read the full winning entries here:
Breton says this year’s prompt provided an array of fascinating pieces of creative prose and poetry.
“I read about different towns and cities in New Zealand, about our neighbours in the Pacific about places well beyond the horizon. There were characters both young and old. There was humour, there was sex, there was pain, there was longing.”
He says Stella’s story had humour and an overall light touch that captures the loneliness, grimness and camaraderie of flatting life.
Stella, who is in her second year of a BSc in Psychology and a BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE), has already earned national and international recognition for her writing. A recipient of the NZ Society of Authors Secondary School Writing Mentorship and the Write the World Civics in Action Fellowship, she has already published widely – from short stories and literary reviews to a children’s book on mental health for Mike King’s I Am Hope foundation.
She says she loves writing and uses it as a means for connection.
“I like putting experiences into words and relating to people in that way. Sometimes I’ll show pieces to my friends, and I know I’ve done a good job when this one friend replies ‘how are you so good at putting my feelings into words?’”
She says she is “absolutely stoked” to win.
“It is so awesome for Otago to have this competition, and I’m just honoured to be a winner.”
The student poetry winner, Ellen Murray, is equally delighted.
“You never know when or even if someone will ever read something you've worked so hard on, so it's just lovely to know that something you've done has resonated with others,” she says.
The student poetry winner of Writer 2025, Ellen Murray.
Like Stella’s story, Ellen's winning poem, Homecomings, or Adrift, explores a character’s journey to Dunedin to study; and also reflects on the loss of a parent – but that is where the similarities end.
Breton says he couldn’t go past Ellen’s poem – which he says is almost a story.
“Of all the pieces submitted in all the different categories I think this best handles the theme of belonging. It’s gentle, well-paced and thoughtful.
“It’s a poem that has everything. Great movement through time and space. Sadness, humour, longing.”
Presented as a numbered list, and with long and short lines, each with carefully chosen words, Ellen, who is in her final year of a Theatre Studies PhD, says she originally wrote it as straightforward prose.
“But then I brought it to my writing group, and when someone read it aloud, I felt the internal rhythm was not coming through, so I rewrote it into a list poem to capture the associative, chaotic feeling of many places and ideas coalescing.”
This is the sixth year the competition has been offered – and it once again drew high-quality entries from all of the University’s campuses, and from around Aotearoa New Zealand and the world.
Breton urges all those who entered and didn’t win not to feel dispirited.
“Firstly, judging is completely subjective. I picked pieces that grabbed my heart, another reader would judge differently. Results aside, the real achievement is the bravery it takes to put yourself down on the page.”
He also encourages all entrants to keep going.
“Creative writing is a skill that is developed through practice, through honest reflection, and through close reading. It is not easy. If it was easy, it wouldn’t be so glorious when you get it right, or close to right!”
The competition was established in 2019 as part of the University’s 150th celebrations. It is organised by University Publications Editor Lisa Dick and English and Linguistics Programme Senior Teaching Fellow Nicola Cummins and supported by the University Book Shop, Otago University Press, Dunedin City of Literature, Otago Access Radio, and the Otago Daily Times.
This year a special publication celebrating all the winning entries was released.