By Aaron Cordy
STORIES as old as time were recently celebrated, might be a bit of a furphy, but celebrating the 2025 Furphy Literary Award winners is no tall tale.
Serena Moss is this year’s Furphy Literary Award winner for her entry, The Eulogy Business. About a person who makes their living writing eulogies, advertising on Gumtree under ‘creative services’ [Need a Eulogy? Ghostwriter Available. No Judgment. Quick Turnaround. Reasonable Rates] but most of the jobs come through word of mouth.
“I never expected to win, just being shortlisted felt huge. The Eulogy Business is about grief, legacy, and the quiet power of giving someone else the words they can’t find for themselves,” said the Western Australian-based writer, Serena Moss.
Runner up was Charlotte Askew for Somewhere Above the Artesian. In third place was Amy Montague, with All the Moments I Still Live In. The three winning entries, along with all the short-listed entries will be published in The Furphy Anthology 2025 later in the year.
Serena Moss joins an esteemed list of previous FLA winners: Kathryn Lomer (2024), Jen Rewell (2023), Cate Kennedy (2022), Thomas Alan (2021) and Ruby Todd (2020).
788 entries were submitted this year, making it the second highest recorded in the award’s six-year history since the 2020 expansion into a national competition. Meaning the judging panel of Anson Cameron, John Harms, Margaret Hickey, Stephanie Holt, John Kerr and Thornton McCamish had their work cut out for them.
Junior and Youth winners of short stories and poems written by young people in the Goulburn Valley were also announced on Sunday, July 27, at Shepparton Library.
Junior Short Story:
Winner: The Ocean’s Orphan, by Jane Pearce
2nd Place: Fly, Fly Away, by Evelyn Hamson
Equal 3rd Place: The Adventures of Super Kid: Super Kid vs The Mime, by Sky Narrazee
Equal 3rd Place: Pondpark’s Quietest Hero, by Lill Narrazee
Junior Poetry:
Winner: The Lark by Errol Rose
2nd Place: More Than Roses by Sky Narrazee
Equal 3rd Place: In the tree by Errol Rose
Equal 3rd Place: Kusama by Errol Rose
Youth Short Story:
Winner: A Cup of Kindness by Asha Birchall
2nd Place: My World by Batul Mgoter
3rd Place: The Forgotten Library by Diya Sonlall
Youth Poetry:
Winner: A Stair Set in Stone by Georgia Cowen
2nd Place: Those Who Wrote the Map by Eliza Cowen
3rd Place: The Highway by Aniq Alam
