A Fabulous Event with HKAS!
April 13, 2021 at 3:21 pm | Posted in writing competitions | Leave a commentTags: Chinese International School, Hong Kong Arts Symposium

On Saturday I had the great pleasure of addressing by Zoom the winners of the Writing Section of the annual Hong Kong Arts Symposium competition, hosted by Chinese International School! Along with two other judges (YA writer Chris Maden and journalist Ophelia Wang), we had the immensely difficult task of choosing the winners from a pool of very talented writers from schools across Hong Kong in two age groups: 9 to 12 and 13 to 18. Here are the winners in this section:

All the judges agreed that the standard of entries was exceptional, with the winners displaying considerable maturity as writers, as well as raw talent, empathy and passion. It is my fond hope that they all continue to write prolifically. I confidently expect to see their names mentioned at literary events in the future :)!
Congratulations to all the students who took part in the competition, which also included Visual Arts and Photography. And congratulations also to Reina Lim and the rest of the committee of students who ran the competition and the event with great skill. It was a pleasure to work with you all!
Here are some photos taken at the event, including prize-awarding, workshops and prizes from the sponsors and donors. (Oswald Ox and I were happy to be included :)).
Not long to go now…
June 5, 2019 at 5:03 pm | Posted in children's literacy, Monkey story, writing competitions | Leave a commentTags: Clever Competition, The Practically Perfect Pig Tale Competition, The Tale of Ming Kee Monkey
Ming Kee Monkey being SUPER patient in The Tale of Ming Kee Monkey. Illustration by Harry Harrison
Thank you for your patience, all you fabulous contestants in my Practically Perfect Pig Tale Competition! My lovely helper is home from hospital and resting up, and I’m back to judging of your fantastic stories! I’m having so much fun reading them – you’ve all done a wonderful job! So it won’t be long to go now before I announce the finalists! Keep visiting my site, and I’ll be making the big announcement soon!
The results are out in my Dashing Dog Story Competition!
May 2, 2018 at 3:40 pm | Posted in children's literacy, Clever Competitions, writing competitions | Leave a commentTags: Clever Competitions, The Dashing Dog Story Writing Competition
At long last I’ve finished the judging of my Dashing Dog Story Competition! I had some important family matters to attend to over the last month, and as we all know, family comes first – even when there’s an exciting competition to be judged! So thank you all so much for your patience! There were a very impressive 66 entries in all, from students in 17 different schools in 7 cities around the world: Beijing, Changzhou, Chicago, Doha, Hong Kong, Melbourne and Shanghai. The overall standard of the stories was very high, making it extremely difficult to pick the order of the winners!
Special congratulations to the first place winners in each category:
FIRST PLACE in GRADE ONE TO THREE CATEGORY: Hannah Thompson, Grade 3 Methodist Ladies College, Kew, Melbourne, 8 years old
FIRST PLACE in GRADE FOUR TO SIX CATEGORY: Aoife Mary Walshe, 4th grade, SUIS HongQiao Campus, Shanghai, 9 years old
And to the ten other place-winners! If you’d like to read their fabulous stories, click here right away!
Enjoy!
Have patience, my writer friends…
May 14, 2017 at 2:34 pm | Posted in children's literacy, Rooster story, writing competitions | Leave a commentTags: Clever Competitions, Really Riveting Rooster Tale Story Competition, The Tale of Rickshaw Rooster, The Year of the Rooster, Writing Competitions for Kids
I’m almost there! I’ve been super busy judging the fabulous entries in my Really Riveting Rooster Tale Clever Competition over the last VERY busy fortnight and I’m just about finished! So hang in there – the results should be out in the next 24 hours – COCKADOODLE – DOOOOOOO!
Patience, my friends…
November 28, 2016 at 6:08 pm | Posted in children's literacy, Clever Competitions, Uncategorized, writing competitions | 4 CommentsTags: Horribly Hilarious Halloween Story Competition
What a wonderful lot of Horribly Hilarious Halloween stories I’ve received from you all! I’m judging the competition now…but I’ve got a VERY busy week ahead of me, with three school visits and two Christmas Fairs in just six days, so please have patience while I get the judging finished, and I’ll post the results as soon as I possibly can!
A fabulous day at Kingston International School, Kowloon Tong!
February 16, 2016 at 4:40 pm | Posted in Chinese Calendar Tales, Hong Kong Schools, Uncategorized, writing competitions, Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: Hong Kong Schools, The Tale of Ming Kee Monkey, Writing Competitions for Kids, Writing workshops
Today I had the best day doing workshops with Upper Primary at Kingston International School in Kowloon Tong! The Grade 4s unscrambled limericks and identified haikus and completed the gaps in a horrifying poem called Let’s Destroy the School in my Introduction to Poetry Workshop! The Grade 5s and 6s learned all about How to Write a Riveting Story that will glue the reader’s nose to the page, and left with a fab Story Planning sheet to plan their next stories! And some of them even promised to use them to plan their entry into my current Clever Competition (see tab at the top of this page!). I can’t wait to read their entries! Huge thanks to the lovely Jennifer Shaw for hosting me today! Photos to come!
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