14 December 2020

Students from 26 Catholic schools across Victoria have shared stories through prose, poetry and art, with many focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic as part of this year’s Shared Stories Anthology.

Project manager Peter Farrar from Star of the Sea College, Brighton, said this year’s anthology is perhaps the most significant yet.

‘Given the extraordinary challenges our community has faced through the pandemic, it is not surprising that most of this year’s pieces have focused on this theme. The anthology provides remarkable insights from students ranging from Prep to Year 12 on their responses to the pandemic, both from local, very personal, and global perspectives.’

‘The anthology provides a unique opportunity for students to deeply express themselves, and this year stands as a tribute to the resilience and creativity of our young people’, Mr Farrar said.

Ruby Utber, Year 6 at St James’ School, Brighton, describes her experience in a poem titled ‘Glass cups’: ‘Stuck in a glass cup, waiting to be set free. I watch the hours pass, taking my primary school days with them. Fun times are crushed into millions of memories, slowly vanishing before my eyes.’

In her poem, ‘What lies beyond the red door’, Nazareth College, Noble Park North, Year 8 student Marli Di Pilla describes the pandemic as a ‘grotesque monster’ and speaks of her fears of never returning to ‘the world she covets’.

In a letter to her future children titled ‘The light at the end of the tunnel’, Emma Peluso, Year 8 at Star of the Sea College, says: ‘If there is one thing that I want you to take away from these times – it’s that instead of seeing a challenge as a reason to stop trying, see it as a reason to start.’

The annual compilation of the anthology of creative works commenced in 2006 and forms part of the permanent collection of the State Library Victoria.

The virtual launch of the 2020 anthology can be viewed on YouTube.

Download the Shared Stories Anthology here: http://www.sharedstoriesanthology.org/uploads/2/7/2/5/27250981/shared_stories_2020-fa-web.pdf