St Hilda’s Collegiate year 13 pupil Tunmise Adebowale, 17, claimed first place in the secondary schools division in New Zealand’s richest short story competition, the Sargeson Prize.
Tunmise said her novella, The Catastrophe of Swimming, looked at the struggles people faced internally in their own relationships and how their insecurities could mingle with other issues such as race and colonialism.
She said she was a poet and never considered writing a short story until her father and friends encouraged her to give it a go.
She had looked at previous winners of short story competitions in New Zealand and did not see anyone like her.
"I didn’t see a lot of Nigerians or black people ... and I thought that this is not my jam and my dad told me I should just ignore that; I should just put in my best and see what the outcome is," she said.
Tunmise was born in Ile-Ife, Nigeria, spent her childhood in South Africa and moved to New Zealand when she was 10.
She said a quote from Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, "If you don’t like someone else’s story, write your own", gave her the motivation to write her story.
"I was born in Nigeria and raised in South Africa and from reading books or watching movies it’s very hard to find someone who has had similar experiences to me in literature and competition.
"I looked at that quote — obviously it can be interpreted differently — but I thought, ‘you know, what if I’m not seeing other people writing stories about me — I’m going to give it a go."
Tunmise said she cried when she found out she had won the competition, and it gave her the confidence she could write short stories.
She won a cash prize of $2000 and a one-week summer writing residency at the University of Waikato.
Taieri College pupil Anaya Mundamattam’s story Estranged was highly commended in the competition.
