School student wins top prize in short story competition

A Year 6 pupil from Glenavon Primary School in Auckland has won an innovative writing competition and almost $5000 worth of books for her school Library.

Corbyn Taulealea-Huch, 9, from Blockhouse Bay, is the winner of the inaugural BACI Lounge Short Story Competition, beating out other entries from more than 200 of Auckland’s low-decile primary schools.

As the winner, Corbyn also receives a $150 BACI Lounge book voucher for her efforts plus the pleasure of seeing her story published online for the world to read at www.bacilounge.com

Corbyn says she’s proud of her achievement and is glad to help out her school with a big stack of brand new books. She says she was surprised when told her story, about why her pet blue donkey made her late for school, won the competition.

“I couldn’t believe it! I worked really hard on my story but didn’t think I’d actually win. Writing is really cool so I’ve asked my teacher if we can enter some more competitions,” she says.

The BACI Lounge Short Story Competition was created by Dr Sharad Paul, a Skin Cancer Surgeon, University Lecturer, published author and Director of bookstore BACI Lounge*.

A published author himself, Dr Paul was convinced a short story competition for lower-decile Auckland schools was an excellent way to get young minds excited about reading and writing.

“If the competition inspired even one child to pursue their writing or academic education further then it’s been a great success in my mind. I think it’s safe to say that we have achieved this judging by the really positive feedback from both students and teachers,” he says.

Glenavon Primary School’s Principal Elaine Herbert says the competition really got her pupils excited about writing and is grateful to Dr Paul for organising such a worthwhile educational initiative.

“All the children really got behind the competition, so we’d like to thank Dr Paul and BACI Lounge for inspiring the budding young writers at Glenavon primary school,” she says.