It is an exciting moment in any young writer’s life – being informed your work made the cut.
For young Victoria Walsh of North Harbour, St. Mary’s Bay, it was a dream come true.
Walsh has been writing for years, and has won the provincial writing competition, Arts and Letters, in the past, and her grandmother, Marina Gambin, is also a writer, who publishes a bi-weekly column in The Charter.
Walsh is in her final year of high school at St. Catherine’s Academy in Mount Carmel, and is taking some English courses through concurrent studies at Memorial University while she finishes her high school.
“I write about personal struggles, really, a mixture of things,” said Walsh. “I write poetry that leans in the direction of self help, but really I just write about growing up, the general teenaged angsty-type things. The story that got published was called Dirt, Sweat and Hooves. Other than writing, horseback riding is the other thing I am most passionate about. For an English class I had to write a descriptive piece, and I thought if I can’t write about writing, I will write about the other thing I am most passionate about. So I went back and went over the entire experience of going to the stable for the first time, the first lesson, going out on the trail and just how it felt and everything like that. It’s not very long, maybe a page in length.”
Although this work was originally done for school, she decided it would be the story to submit when she was asked to send something in to the Irish publication.
“This whole thing was an accident,” explained the young author. “I went to Ireland with Festival of the Sea in 2009 and when over there, I met a lot of people who were influential in writing in the area. Some of them had been to Newfoundland and Labrador before and heard about how I won the Arts and Letters Award previously, and so I got to know some of those people and shared some of my writing with them and when I came back they emailed me and asked me to submit. So I did and low and behold...”
She said she was shocked to find out her work was chosen for the anthology.
“It’s a bit... I didn’t even know how to take it. It’s a bit... wow! I haven’t seen it yet. It is still in the mail.”
Walsh credits her love of writing to her grandmother.
“She was a major influence on me growing up. I wouldn’t have done any of this if it wasn’t for her,” said Walsh.
As for what the future holds for this young woman, she is not sure of anything except she will always be a writer.
“It is something I have great passion for, really. I don’t know if I will pursue a full time career in writing or not but I will always be a writer.”
Walsh said the feedback she got from the publishers was also quite encouraging.
“They told me my story was excellent and that they were very excited,” she said, adding she doesn’t have her own copy yet, but is quite looking forward to it.
The book is available to purchase online at www.scalltamedia.com. Victoria is the daughter of Jud Walsh and Sherry Gambin-Walsh.
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