Magnolia tree star of competition-winning story

Posted: Tuesday Oct 31, 2023

A magnolia tree whose flowering heralds the arrival of spring for University of Otago staff is the unlikely star of one of the winning stories in Writer 2023, the University of Otago’s annual creative writing competition.

Magnolia tree star of competition-winning story | Otago Daily Times Online News (odt.co.nz)

Molly Crighton, of the university’s Bioethics Centre, won the staff fiction section of the contest with her story 95 Million Years, which features a cardigan-wearing administrator who secretly feasts on university flora, with surprising results.

Crighton was inspired by the many "stunning" stories, myths and poems featuring metamorphosis she had read.

Her imagery resonated with judge, University of Otago Burns Fellow Kathryn van Beek — who was "utterly charmed by this story".

The creative writing contest, organised by university publications editor Lisa Dick and English and linguistics programme senior teaching fellow Nicola Cummins, was open to alumni, staff and students, and attracted close to 100 entries.

Category winners:

Student poetry — Kim Tait; student fiction — Sydney Rodriguez; staff poetry — Mandy Phipps-Green; staff fiction — Molly Crighton; alumni poetry — Val O’Reilly; alumni fiction — Caellin (Monti) Rodgers.