Yap (left) receives her prize from Swinburne Sarawak deputy vice-chancellor and chief executive officer Prof John Wilson (centre) witnessed by Melvin.
KUCHING: Evelyn Ringkai, Alyssa Yap Xin Yi and Govind Anil Nair won top awards in the recently concluded Wildlife Conservation Swinburne Sarawak English Microfiction Challenge organised by Wildlife Conservation Society Malaysia Programme (WCS Malaysia) and Swinburne University of Technology, Sarawak Campus (Swinburne Sarawak).
The competition aims at inspiring young Malaysian writers to think critically about challenges in conservation while addressing these issues via creative writing in English.
The five-day English microfiction challenge kicked off with the release of the first daily prompt on the challenge website at 9am on Nov 12, ending the following day when the next prompt was revealed.
Participants must be studying in Malaysia and fit into one of the three age groups stated. At the end of the five days, the judges decided on an overall first, second and third place winner for each category.
Evelyn Ringkai’s ‘Queen of the Night’ won first place for Category A which was open to aspiring Malaysian writers ages 13 to 15 while Alyssa Yap’s ‘Melodies of Decay’ and ‘Seeds of Hope’ won both first and second place for Category B (ages 16 to 17).
‘Over the Years’ and ‘Fair Game’, both written by Govind Nair, won first and second place for Category C (ages 18 to 24).
The overall winners for each category were awarded with cash prizes of RM800 for the overall first-place winner, RM500 for the second-place winner and RM 300 for the third-place winner and certificate each.
Microfiction Challenge co-organiser and Swinburne Sarawak senior lecturer Christina Yin commended the young participants for taking up the challenge.
“It is really a credit to all these young participants, those who won the awards and those who didn’t as it is no easy feat to write a short story in less than 500 words based on a one-word prompt and an environmental theme within 24 hours.
“We hope that our youngsters in school and university will continue to use their creativity and imagination to engage readers of all ages and to inspire many to live more environmentally-friendly lives,” she said.
Meanwhile, WCS Malaysia director Dr Melvin Gumal said conservation is a most complex task and requires support from people of all ages as well as disciplines.
“We need to engage with young writers as they are and will be the voices of conservation in the future. Nurturing their potential is therefore vitally important for all.”
This year, organisers received 118 submissions from 48 participants.
The winners were announced at a simple ceremony during the Run for the Wild on Nov 24, which saw more than 500 individuals running to conserve orang-utans, sharks and rays.
The English Microfiction Challenge is supported by the US Embassy, whom WCS Malaysia has been working together with in running several education-based English workshops with the Fulbright English Teaching Assistants and English teachers from all over Malaysia.
The winning entries, as well as honourable mentions can be viewed on the challenge website at http://wildlifemicrofiction.com/.
Prof John Wilson (centre) presents Govind (left) with his prize while Melvin looks on.