September 23rd, 2026DaylesfordCollege
These Year 10 students had busily spent a term crafting and editing their pieces. Coupled with feedback from Amanda de Clifford, the head of English at Daylesford College, these young writers were also coached in performance and public speaking by Rebecca Lister – an award-winning playwright, M.C. and co-artistic Director of the arts company Anvil Productions. Introduced by both Amanda and Kirky Kirkman – the head of Humanities – these students flourished at the festival’s launch; their pieces boldly experimenting with both prose and poetry as they explored this festival’s 24th annual theme “Curiouser and Curiouser”. Daylesford College not only brought spoken words to the launch, but also lyrics and beats. Under the eye of Denis Toner – the leader of the Music program at the college – and supported by sessional instrumental teachers Ralph Rehak and Alfie Pleasance, the jazz band cooked up an aural storm. This jazz band – Sasha Taylor-Holmes, Harry Billing, Ralf Rehak, Jamie Martin Lukoszek and Olive Schwarz Deakin – closed the launch of Words in Winter with three palpable numbers, including Peggy Lee’s signature track ‘Fever’. As the audience grooved in the aisles Daylesford was, indeed, finally warming up! This is the fifth year that Daylesford College has participated in the opening of this literary festival and we can’t wait until next year.
FINDING THEIR VOICE AT WORDS IN WINTER Slouched giants strap on stilts – Dressed in shades of grey. Mundane road lures – Mistaking direction for meaning. Choreographed steps trample speakers of rare language – White soles stained with stolen independence. This is the opening stanza of Olive Schwarz Deakin’s poem ‘Delicate Hands’, which she assuredly read at the recent Words in Winter launch at the Daylesford Townhall. Joining Olive was Zahyra Wappelt-Witt, Abby Dunstan, Kasey Lewis and Jet Stockfeld – all such impressive writers and performers! Zahyra’s piece of prose – ‘The Souls of Spirits’ – is underpinned by a belief that something extraordinary may be out there and she wanted to share that sense of wonder with the world. For Abby, ‘Slowing Down’ is inspired by The Words in Winter theme “Curiouser and Curiouser” and, thus, there are references to Alice in Wonderland dotted throughout her poem. WhileKasey uses S.E Hinton’s iconic text The Outsiders as a springboard for her piece ‘Stay Gold’, Jet’s ‘A Dust-Filled Silence’ explores what it means to be lost within one’s mind. In Olive’s poem, she contrasts mundanity with the freedom found in curiosity – a force that brings colour to our world.
5348 2367 daylesford.sc@education.vic.gov.au
