
Australian Over 31s young writer Conor Ryan from Adelaide has won the 2020 Australian Over 31s Basil Sellers Award presented at the annual young writers conference on the Gold Coast on Saturday.
The Awards are presented at 4.00pm of the conference each year – there are a number of awards but with Covid 19 restrictions many were unable to attend in 2020.
Each of the Australian Over 31s young writers in the Press Service International program in conjunction with Christian Today sent in their BEST article for the five Panellists to mark out of 25 - the 25 mark was chosen as in previous years there have been too many multiple winners out of 10 marks.
The Australian Over 31s Panellists
Ashley Saunders - CEO Barnabas Fund Australia
Tim McDonald - Government
John Skinner - 25 years Journalist
Colin Miles - IT Business
Margaret Pearce - ret school teacher
The Australian Over 31s young writers are slotted into Week 5 in the program’s
Week 5 - editor Peter Brookshaw (Salvation Army)

Conor Ryan
Conor’s winning article was titled - Mystical union with Christ
https://www.christiantoday.com.au/news/mystical-union-with-christ.html
Conor is from Adelaide, South Australia. He has a history degree from Tabor College and has a gardening business. Conor has played in Christian heavy metal band Synnove. He is involved in Operation Canaan, a ministry that prays and intercedes for the music scene.
He loves God, music, reading, traveling and thinking deeply about philosophy and current events in the world.
Conor Ryan’s previous articles may be viewed at www.pressserviceinternational.org/conor-ryan.html


Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He mentors young writers and has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children. Dr Tronson writes a daily article for Christian Today Australia (since 2008) and in November 2016 established Christian Today New Zealand. Dr Mark Tronson’s Press Service International in 2019 was awarded the Australasian Religious Press Association’s premier award, The Gutenberg. In September 2020 Summer Moore presented her commission portrait of Dr Mark Tronson holding the Gutenberg plaque. The above photo is the upper part from this portrait.
Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at: http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html