A story about a government agency tasked with matchmaking women following a drop in the female population, has earnt creative writing student Ainsley Ewart a place on this year’s exclusive Monash Prize shortlist.

Ms Ewart’s dystopian fiction, Wo-Match, is set in 2031 after a gynaecological plague diminishes the female population.

Her piece features among just 15 works selected from 342 entries in a shortlist the Emerging Writers’ Festival describes as representing the “extraordinary quality of writing” in Australian and New Zealand undergraduates.

A creative writing aficionado, Ms Ewart also lends her talents to Flinders University student publication, Empire Times, where she is a 2018 editor.

The winner of the 2018 Monash Undergraduate Prize for Creative Writing will be announced at the opening night of the 2018 Emerging Writers’ Festival on 19 June 2018. They will receive $4,000 and have their piece published in national online cultural magazine, Kill Your Darlings, and in Verge, Monash University’s annual creative writing print journal.