Writers Awards 2023
David Camp – Head of English and Library, Year 11 Tutor
The Emanuel School Writers Awards were held in the Millie Phillips Theatre on Monday 13 November 2023. Students were recognised on the night for the high quality of their writing throughout the year, with their work displayed. Their works included essays, short stories, feature articles, speeches, book reviews, and poetry. Two winners were chosen from each year group – a Most Dedicated Writer and a Writer of the Year.
Our Most Dedicated Awards go to the students who have worked to improve their writing or who have shown great consistency in their writing this year. Our Writer of the Year awards go to those students who have produced the most consistently excellent writing this year. Congratulations to all of the winners!
Below are the nominees and winners for 2023:
Year 7
- Lexi Butt
- Phoenix Gien
- Tamar Granot
- Zara Keller
- Alicia Randall
- Leah Zipser
Year 7 Most Dedicated: Tamar Granot
Year 7 Writer of the Year: Leah Zipser
Year 8
- Hannah Fekete
- Leah Joshua
- Noah Revelman
- Maya Roth
- Cyrus Waldner
Year 8 Most Dedicated: Hannah Fekete
Year 8 Writer of the Year: Leah Joshua
Year 9
- Orlando Gien
- Amelie Mueller
- Eva Nabarro
- Elke Selinger
- Daniel Zipser
Year 9 Most Dedicated: Eva Nabarro
Year 9 Writer of the Year: Daniel Zipser
Year 10
- Leah Doust
- Jamie Keyser
- Jessica Linker
- Zachary Sherman
- Gabriella Solomon
- Liberty Waldner
Year 10 Most Dedicated: Liberty Waldner
Year 10 Writer of the Year: Leah Doust
Year 11
- Tamarah Aaron
- Maya Foreman
- Willow Gelin
- Kian Hamburger
- Alice Milner
- Yael Rembach
Year 11 Most Dedicated: Kian Hamburger
Year 11 Writer of the Year: Tamarah Aaron
Year 12
- Julian Baruch
- Ruby Brody
- Ashley Goldman
- Lucinda Labi
- Joshua Leslie
- Ruby Miller
- Toby Akres
- Ethan Berkovic
- Jesse Carpenter
- Ma’ayan Granot
- Alexander Itzkowitz
- Ella Kirschner
- Eden Levit
- Saul Magner
- Arielle Melamed
- Scott Reuveny
- Jack Simon
- Leah Wolf
Year 12 Most Dedicated: Arielle Melamed
Year 12 Writer of the Year: Jesse Carpenter
Emanuel School’s 2023 Writer of the Year: Jesse Carpenter
Below is an extract from Writer of the Year Jesse Carpenter’s English Extension 2 Major Work, a critical response:
The Beast of Meaning
To separate the postmodern from capitalism is to imagine the sky without Atlas, or perhaps the superstructure without the base. The postmodern is a facet and extension of the capitalist system, it is what literary theorist Frederic Jameson would label as the “apotheosis”7 of capitalism, and so late-stage capitalism becomes the insidious agent responsible for the death of the sign and the splintering of meaning within our labyrinthine condition. As meaning fractures within late-stage capitalism, the relationship of the sign to the signified diverges, it is no longer able to be understood by the tools of structuralism nor poststructuralism — neither the dyad of Saussure nor the différance of Derrida can explain the peculiarity and fickleness of meaning in our milieu.
So, what can?
Marxist literary theory has long since been eclipsed, yet it is still adhered to by its devotees; perhaps Zizek returns to polish the statues of Trotsky and Althusser, tipping his hat to Lacan and spitting at the feet of Harold Bloom. I too am drawn to these dusty statues, wishing to reframe Marxist theories that are more relevant today than they have ever been. I wish to apply and synthesize the works of Benjamin, Voloshinov, Brecht, and Althusser, to study the nature of meaning within the “ever-widening labyrinth”8 of postmodern capitalism.
My methodology, and curiously, perhaps also my answer, is hip-hop.
Before this, I must correct myself. The death of the sign is hyperbole, it is precisely because the sign is living and breathing that meaning must be studied. In the Postscript to the Name of the Rose, Eco envisions a bizarre game of referencing, in which meaning is restored through the purposeful refolding of a sign, a dance between responder and composer.
I envision a different game, one more closely tied to praxis, the reality of life in the postmodern. Foundational to this concept is the idea that it does not just matter that Barbara Cartland has written the words I love you madly, it matters that she has sold them.
Let it first be said that the concept of a sign is a curious one — in seeing the sign as an attempt to capture meaning, we can begin to view meaning as a great and ever-changing beast.
The Beast of Meaning is a fast and fluid creature, perhaps part sly chameleon and part elusive unicorn, with a dash of nimble Jabberwock or toothy hydra, but ultimately, it only matters that this beast is ever-changing, and something to be hunted for. Signs become material reflections of the Beast of Meaning, clues of its location. Sentences become inky footprints, words are split by punctuation as twigs are broken underfoot, pages are brushed aside and scattered like the leaves that drift through the labyrinth of the postmodern. All signs are indicators of the presence of the Beast of Meaning, and so consumption can then be viewed as a hunt, in which the responder looks through the signs, piecing them together within themselves to find the ephemeral Beast of Meaning.
