2023 AFTS Award

Our 2023 Award winner is Shirley Way – a current Executive Committee member and former eZine editor. Congralations!

Against a stained glass background which is part of the award, is a framed image of Shirley Way facing left, smiling, with honey coloured wavy hair.

The 2023 nominees for the ‘AFTS Annual Award for Inspiration and Contribution to Australian Fairy Tale Culture’ are:

Sophie Masson, Spike Deane, Shirley Way

Against a stained glass background, being part of the award, are three headshots labelled Sophie Masson, Spike Deane, and Shirley Way. The title is The 2023 AFTS Annual Award for inspiration and contribution to Australian Fairy Tale Culture nominees are and there is a crowned frog on a tree branch in an oval in the top left corner, being the logo of the Australian Fairy Tale Society.

Read about our nominees, visit their websites and then cast your vote – noting that only current AFTS members may vote.

Sophie Masson
www.sophiemassonauthor.com

This year, Sophie – with previous winner Lorena Carrington – launched a small indie publishing company, Pardalote Press, to get their magical stories and artworks out into the world.

Sophie’s book ‘French Fairy Tales’, which is illustrated by Lorena, inspired musician/composer Reilly McCarron to produce a CD, ‘Il était une fois’ (Once upon a time). And these three AFTS members are part of our anthology, ‘South of the Sun: Australian fairy tales for the 21st century’.

Sophie’s tales and passion for fairy tales have inspired art, music and readers around the world. Her body of work includes ‘French Fairy Tales’, ‘Satin’, ‘The Crystal Heart’, ‘Scarlet in the Snow’, ‘Moonlight and Ashes’, ‘The Firebird’, and ‘Hunter’s Moon’.

Spike Deane
www.spikedeane.com

An award-winning mixed media artist, specialising in cast glass, Spike draws much of her inspiration from fairy tales, folklore and mythology. Her prolific contributions to Australian fairy tale culture span from the old forests of Europe to engaging with chatbot, and an array of beautiful art in between.

Spike has volunteered her time, energy and skills as the AFTSeZine graphics editor since 2016.

Shirley Way
https://australianfairytalesociety.org/afts-podcast/

Shirley was instrumental in co-organising the 2022 AFTS conference ‘Australian Fairy Tales: Flesh or Fossil?’ in Brisbane. For this, she also conducted a series of video interviews with presenters and key AFTS members for our YouTube channel.

Shirley is a valued and active member of the AFTS committee, a previous eZine editor, a co-organiser of the 2020 Zoom conference, and a contributor to the 2023 conference in Sydney.

She has brought people together from a variety of fields and disciplines to highlight the things they have in common and help them spark new ideas and create new works, particularly at the Brisbane Conference. She is supportive of the Society and its goals, and has done a lot of promotion for its various events and projects.