It was her husband Bill who suggested she write about teenagers, with the given topic ''I Have A Dream'', and as the mother of four daughters, aged between 14 and 17, she was well versed on the subject.
At Rural Women New Zealand's national conference in Christchurch, Mrs Malcolm won the Val Tarrant bell for public speaking, as well as the Tutunui trophy for most points in the speech contest for a first-time entrant.
Mrs Malcolm firstly won the Otago-Southland regional final in April before advancing to the national final.
She had a ''lot of fun'' doing the speech and she knew the audience would relate to the subject.
''You sort of know after a few minutes whether you've got the audience or not,'' she said.
Last year, she won the Marlborough short story competition for unpublished first-time writers.
This year, she entered the Olive Burdekin competition for advanced and published writers and she won it with a column she wrote for the Otago Daily Times farm page about buying a tractor. It was judged by author Joy Cowley.
Mrs Malcolm said she was thrilled to win the award, saying she was ''not a writer, I just occasionally have inspiration''. She appreciated the support from the local contingent of Rural Women New Zealand members.
She also acknowledged it was her husband who provided the inspiration for the tractor story and it was also his suggestion that she speak about teenagers.
Her first exposure to public speaking was probably back in her Young Farmers Club days. That was an organisation she was heavily involved with.
She finished one point behind her husband in a regional final for the Young Farmer Contest. He was a national finalist twice, finishing third in 1992 and second in 1994.
Mrs Malcolm is now a member of the Under The Kakanuis Women in Farming group, a group of women who ''just do what members want to do''.
That included the likes of cheese-making. Mrs Malcolm recently hosted a fencing day, where gun safety was also taught, along with other ''hands-on stuff''.
The majority of the members were working on-farm and were like-minded, all sharing a rural background, although they were involved in different facets of farming, she said.