Year 13 student, Tunmise Adebowale, was the winning entry in the Secondary Schools Division of the 2023 Sargeson Prize for her piece, ‘The Catastrophe of Swimming’. This is a very impressive accomplishment, with many of Aotearoa’s great writers having found success in the same competition. 

Chief Judge Vincent O’Sullivan, said in relation to Tunmise’s work, “‘The Catastrophe of Swimming’ deeply intrigued me. Not because it was about colonisation and its legacy, which to some extent it was, but because, in a sense, it assumed that as a given, with no need to hammer it home, allowing the story that it carried to be narrated delicately, humorously, a fairly casual event, even.” 

As the Secondary Schools Division winner, Tunmise receives $2000 and a one-week summer writing residency at the University of Waikato, which includes mentoring, accommodation and meals.  

This story will be published on Reading Room on 11 November 2023.

Rachel Crawford
HoD English