Kristina Ross novel First Year wins the 2024 Vogel prize
A novel by Kristina Ross about first-year students at an acting school has won the final Vogel award.
In the nick of time, Kristina Ross has won The Australian/Vogel’s Literary Prize.
In the nick of time, because she has recently turned 35 and that was the cut-off age for writers who wanted to enter, and because this is the last year for the Vogel.
Ross, who lives on the Gold Coast, entered a manuscript about first year students at a prestigious acting school.
First Year, as the book is called, takes seriously the ambitions of these youngsters, as they work on their craft.
Ross could relate: at the age of 17, she left Queensland for the Victoria College of the Arts in Melbourne. She became an actor – and married one, in the shape of Tim Ross – before deciding that she wanted to create stories of her own, and work behind the scenes, as well as on stage.
She worked on her manuscript for several years, before plucking up the courage to enter the Vogel.
“I could not believe I’d won,” she says.
Her prize includes publication by Australian publishers Allen & Unwin, meaning her book will be on the shelves this week.
Ross got the first copy hot off the press a few weeks back, and “burst into tears. It has been on the horizon for so long – a dream of mine, to have my novel published, and now it’s happened.”
Ross says she shopped the manuscript around a few times while it was still in formation, and “truthfully that was really hard. That was eye-opening to me. You know, I’ve always thought okay, you do the work, and then you find a home for it, but you have to be resilient.
“The Vogel prize was honestly the last opportunity for me before, I don’t know, the manuscript might have gone into the bottom drawer.”
First Year will be the last winner of the Vogel. After 44 years, the prize will get a new sponsor next year, with HarperCollins taking over management of The Australian’s new prize for fiction. The prize money will be increased, and there will be no age barrier to entry.
Read an interview with Vogel Prize 2024 winner Kristina Ross in the Review section of The Weekend Australian
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