Tessa Piper, 37 says her award-winning story had been percolating in her mind for 20 years, but it wasn’t until she heard about the SBS Emerging Writers’ Competition’s theme of “emergence” that she built up the courage to write it.
Piper says she wrote the first version of this story in Year 11. In her school report that year her teacher said that she absolutely loved the piece and encouraged her to continue creative writing.
“It actually took me another 20 years before I went back to that piece and felt like I could revisit it,” Piper tells the New Writer’s Room podcast.
In the podcast, she shares the incredible story behind her winning SBS Emerging Writers’ Competition entry, and how she mustered the courage to share the “heaviest of secrets”.
Her story, The Usual, begins in a suburban house on an ordinary spring day, then shifts into a disturbing tale of drug abuse and child sexual assault. Piper says she was heartened by the win and the response to her piece.
“I really wrote this story for myself without any intention that another reader would read it. I know that sounds a bit silly, but it truly was a personal piece for me to write,” she reveals in the podcast.
“Sharing this with the world has been one of the most affirming and heartening experiences of my entire life... people have rallied from far and wide, and the reaction and reception has just been beyond anything that I could ever in my wildest dreams have imagined.”
She says the parts of the story she wanted to delete and very nearly did delete were the exact lines that the SBS Emerging Writers’ Competition judges Alice Pung and Christos Tsiolkas said in their feedback were their favourite parts of the story.
SBS Emerging Writers’ Competition winner, Tessa Piper. Source: Supplied
Pung and Tsiolkas described the story as “like a punch to the face and guts with a stolen, diamond-studded glove”.
Piper says her advice on anyone wanting to enter the competition would be to “give it a crack”.
“You never ever know. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect,” she says. “Just give it a go. You absolutely never know what the universe has in store.”
Listen to 2022 SBS Emerging Writers’ Competition winner Tessa Piper and runner up Monikka Eliah on the final SBS Voices podcast episode of The New Writer’s Room, in the SBS Radio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, domestic or family violence, call 1800 RESPECT, 1800 737 732 or visit 1800respect.org.au.
