Writer Valda Marshall, born in Adelaide now living in Sydney, wins the third Republican Short Story Competition for “The Child of the Holocaust” on the theme of Citizen or Subject. Valda describes herself as a longstanding, staunch republican, “At the movies in the 50s, when they played God Save the Queen, even then I thought, why are we doing this?”. This is Valda’s second foray into writing about the republic. Her novel “The First President” about a woman running for and becoming the Australian republic’s first head of state in 2016 was published two years ago (see our News Item of 18 December 2009). In contrast, the three winners of the Inaugural Young Republicans National Essay Competition, also run by ARM, were all young men.
Woman for an Australian Republic, Adelaide Ironside, republican poet and artist 1831-1867
Self portrait 1855, Newcastle Art Gallery NSW
