LAMMA ISLAND, Hong Kong -- The creative, often-inspired proprietor of Lamma Island's popular ice-cream shop has won a place in the top scoops of an international writing competition.

Emily Ho, from Emily's Ice-Cream Parlor, stands among 10 semi-finalists competing for the Hong Kong-based Proverse Literary Prize (2010) awarded for excellent English fiction, non-fiction or poetry not yet traditionally published. Emily entered the competition with her Memoirs of an Ice-Cream Lady, parts of which Cairns Media Magazine readers may have read.

Reacting to the news, Emily expresses pleasant surprise. She says she entered the contest mainly for the experience and to learn more about how such events work.

“Many people may question who should care about the daily happenings in a small ice-cream shop run by a Chinese lady on a remote island,” Emily said. “When I started the Memoirs, even I wondered if I qualified as old enough, good or bad enough, for such writing.”

But she soon discovered that her memoirs overflowed with self-actualisation and self-destruction, love and betrayal, joy and heartbreak, plus the struggles she could have predicted and her surprising powers to overcome them.

Initially, some acquaintances scoffed at Emily's writing. She reminded herself that “discouragement may be the best encouragement”.

Along with her own struggles, Emily likes to write about the changes Hong Kong has faced and the post-colonial clashes of Eastern and Western cultures, all as seen through the eyes of an ice-cream lady.

Finalists for the Proverse Prize will be revealed in November or December. By early 2011, a winner will be announced at a ceremony in Hong Kong. Emily's rivals are Sally Dellow, Patricia Grey, D.I. Hardwick, L.W. Illsley, Gregory James, Gillian Jones, Laura Solomon, Dennis Wong and Jennifer Wong. The competition had entries from Andorra, Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The winner receives HK$10,000. Leading entries will be published.

Names of the semi-finalists were announced by Proverse Prize founders Dr Gillian Bickley and Dr Verner Bickley at an event in Andorra, a small principality bordered by Spain and France. Judges called the standard of entries for this, the second annual Proverse Prize competition, “generally excellent”.

The Bickleys, writers and publishers who live in Hong Kong, like to encourage writing excellence. They visit Andorra often and call it a good place to read, write and judge a competition.


The Semi-Finalists:

Sally Dellow, daughter of an English military officer and a Welsh school-teacher, spent most of her young life in Germany, Cyprus and Australia. She attended 12 schools in 13 years before studying law at King's College London. After two years of travel and work through North America and Australasia, she arrived in Hong Kong, now her home for 20 years. A playwright and actor, she has staged four plays. Her poetry appears in anthologies and journals. She's also an executive coach and corporate role-play specialist.

Patricia Grey was raised in Perth, Australia. In 1976, she and her husband established Australia's first underwater pearl farm, pioneering unique growing methods. In 1996, they retired and moved to Andorra. While studying to speak better Spanish, Patricia has returned to her love of writing. She entered her first novel.

Denise Ilona Hardwick comes from Sydney, Australia. She spent her early years in Hong Kong, but studied and trained in Australia. She has lived in Hong Kong since 1987 and works as a government legal officer. The children's stories she entered were written because she wanted to entertain children with lively and interesting tales while teaching morals and touching on issues like childhood obesity.

Emily Ho was born into a traditional Chinese family living in a fishing village on Cheung Chau, one of Hong Kong's outlying islands. With writing, she likes to develop a “fantasy empire” where everything is possible. After working in a travel agency in a hotel and as an account manager with a big telecom company, followed by a six-month break in New York, she opened an ice-cream shop on Lamma Island. The ensuing experiences and lessons inspire her semi-autobiographical memoirs written at quiet moments in her shop.

Lawrence Illsley, originally from Trewellard on the west cliffs of Cornwall, now lives in East London where he writes and performs music. An avid reader since childhood, he discovered writing through music. At age 16, he began by writing lyrics on receipt rolls when working at a supermarket checkout. Seven years later, and in a London supermarket, he wrote the 2,000-line draft of his first epic poem, also on receipt rolls. His Proverse Prize entry is a second epic poem.

Gregory James, a teacher and educational administrator, has had a four-decade career with long stops in China, England, India and Iran. He contributed widely to academic journals and specialist collections and made translations of literary and historical texts. His major pursuit has been to produce authoritative scholastic work accessible to a general audience. His co-authored 2,000-entry Dictionary of Lexicography received a Literati Club award.

Gillian Jones worked for M15 as a researcher for a year and then taught, including in Spain, Portugal and Colombia. After specialist training in teaching English as a foreign language, she joined the British Council and went to Teheran for a time. Now she lives in Britain. After publishing a novel in 2002, she soon founded a company to teach English to nurses and care assistants from overseas at England's nursing homes. Her husband's illness with Parkinson's disease led to the novel entered for the Proverse Prize.

Laura Solomon lives and works in Nelson, New Zealand, but has studied and worked in Britain. She has been published as a novelist, poet and short-story writer. Her plays have been performed, including at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In the inaugural Proverse Prize (2009), she emerged as a joint winner for a novella, Instant Messages, ready for publication in November.

Dennis Wong was born in Singapore, but his family migrated to Australia in 1977. He lives in Sydney with a wife and young son. For 20 years, he has worked in information technology, now as a project manager. In 1985 while at university, he thought of writing a Chinese crime novel. In 1998, he completed such a novel, now entered for the Proverse Prize.

Jennifer Wong was born and raised in Hong Kong, but also lived in Beijing and London. At university, she studied creative writing. She worked as a publicity executive for a major Hong Kong “hong” and now is a copywriter. Her first poetry collection had support from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, and her poems appear in journals and anthologies. In 2008, her work was long-listed for a U.K. Poetry Prize.

ARCHIVES