Year 13 student Ingshwan Zhang was chosen as one of the 12 finalists from more than 140 entries in the prestigious 2025 Katherine Mansfield Short Story Award with her story ‘I Saw Her at the Train Station’.
This year’s judge was award-winning writer Anthony Lapwood. In his opening comments at the award evening on September 9th, Anthony noted that to be shortlisted from a record number of entries this year is a huge deal, “It’s a recognition not only of your skill, but of having a voice that stands out. Your superpower as writers is to help others see the world, and themselves, in a new light. The proof of this superpower is clear in the pieces I read – rich in feeling and insight, and wide-ranging in style and subject.”
Judge Anthony Lapwood gave feedback on Ingshwan’s story:
“This dark and searching piece follows Rebecca, a girl haunted by guilt over the death of fellow student Mai. After receiving a letter which Rebecca tries to deny as an idle threat, she encounters Mai’s ghost at the train station – or perhaps the apparition is a figment of Rebecca’s disturbed conscience. This ambiguity is productive, as Mai’s ghost urges Rebecca to recognise the hurt that she has helped cause. Posing complex questions about classism and peer pressure, the preoccupations of the characters, wary of how far they might fall, infuse every image. (“I was rooted to the spot, my eyes fixed on the [train] tracks,” Rebecca tells us. “The metal glinted under the streetlights, looking like streaks of meteors.”) Ultimately, the ghost story presents a tragic vision of unintended consequences and a poignant plea for greater empathy.
The Mansfield Short Story Award is open to Year 12 and 13 students in the Wellington region to enter creative or personal writing. Congratulations Ingshwan!
