Prime Minister’s Literary Award: Proof positive that Will Kostakis really is something
A former scholarship kid from an exclusive all-boy private school has won a Prime Minister’s Literary Award for a story that celebrates his Greek ancestry.
Will Kostakis wrote his first novel when he was 17. It was published when he was 19. He likes to joke that it sold 10 copies, “including the seven I bought myself”.
Yet he persisted. And now he has won one of the most prestigious and lucrative prizes in the country, a Prime Minister’s Literary Award for his sixth novel for young readers, We Could Be Something,
Kostakis, now 35, says he was encouraged to write by teachers at Newington, an all-boys private school in Sydney, where he was once a gifted scholarship kid.
“They pushed me to enter writing competitions; by the time I got to year 12, I was pitching a novel,” he says.
Loathing Lola – the so-called 10-copy seller – was about a “a group of students who get their own reality show … it was comedy and tragedy, with a 17-year-old boy’s humour, so I’m not sure the jokes have aged that well,” Kostakis says.
His new book, We Could Be Something (Allen & Unwin), is about a boy whose fathers have broken up, leaving him to start his adult life in a flat above a cafe that is owned by an extended Greek family that he hardly knows.
“It’s my love letter to my Greek family, and to my teachers and publishers,” Kostakis says.
“They’ve kept me going.”
Kostakis says he likes writing young adult fiction “because it’s such fertile ground … people at the start of their lives, finding out who they really are.
“It took me ages to express my authentic self,” he says.
“And I hope I can encourage other boys not to suppress themselves too much.”
In congratulating the winners of the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards in six categories, Anthony Albanese said the books “showcase the diversity of Australian voices and sharing our unique stories with the world”.
Minister for the Arts Tony Burke said “they bring the Australian experience and Australian imagination to life.”
The winner in each category receives $80,000, tax-free.
The winners are:
• Fiction: Anam, by Andre Dao (Penguin Random House).
• Non-fiction: Close to the Subject: Selected Works by Daniel Browning (Magabala Books).
• Young Adult Literature: We Could be Something by Will Kostakis (Allen & Unwin)
• Children’s Literature: Tamarra: A Story of Termites on Gurindji Country by Violet Wadrill, Topsy Dodd Ngarnjal, Leah Leaman, Cecelia Edwards, Cassandra Algy, Felicity Meakins, Briony Barr and Gregory Crocetti (Hardie Grant Explore).
• Poetry: The Cyprian by Amy Crutchfield (Giramondo Press).
• Australian History: Donald Horne: A Life in the Lucky Country by Ryan Cropp (La Trobe University Press).
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