Meet the finalists for The Australian Fiction Prize
The first ever fiction prize sponsored by The Australian and HarperCollins Australia has attracted a talented field. Each and every one of these writers deserve their place on the shortlist.
So much talent.
We here at the Books pages knew The Australian Fiction Prize would be popular with writers but we were blown away by the number of people who submitted a manuscript for consideration - and by the excellence of those entries.
The prize replaces the old Vogel, which was for young, unpublished writers.
The Australian Fiction Prize was open to anyone who dreamed of one day having a book on the shelves, but crucially it was open also to experienced writers seeking a new direction.
We had entries from writers in their 80s, and from writers in their 20s. Some had already written two or three – or, in one case, more than 20 – novels. All were entranced by the idea of a new writing competition sponsored by The Australian where the prize would be $35,000 and publication by HarperCollins Australia.
Head of fiction Catherine Milne, said: “We have seen some of the most exciting new writing Australia has to offer. It was a joy to whittle the entries down to this impressive shortlist of seven, a mix of debut writers and seasoned authors, writing everything from psychological thrillers to crime to family sagas to bold new ways of storytelling. Choosing a winner is going to be extremely difficult indeed.”
Hand on heart, at the time of writing I don’t know who the winner is. It’s to be decided, at one more meeting of the judges. The standard is high. Each and every one of these writers deserve their place on the shortlist. In my opinion, they’re all worthy winners. That said, I’m looking forward to announcing the winner next week. It’s been a joy to read their work.
Bravo to everyone.
The Wanting Dance
By Joanna Morrison
Pitch: An ambitious Australian art historian has her heart – and then her work – stolen by a rival academic; at the same time, she becomes fixated by an intriguing couple she first sees at Holland’s Rijksmuseum. A tale of obsession, love and art, set in Amsterdam.
Morrison, 46, of Perth, has a background in print journalism (she worked at the Fremantle Herald some 20 years ago) and a PhD in creative writing. Her debut novel, The Ghost of Gracie Flynn, was shortlisted for the City of Fremantle Hungerford Award in 2020 and published in 2022.
“It’s incredibly exciting,” she said, of her shortlisting for The Australian Fiction Prize.
“I’d been juggling the manuscript for a long time and I was thinking of not entering because I wasn’t sure it was ready. On the day the entries were closing my son said, ‘well, you’ve still got a few hours, you should at least try’ and that’s what I’m always telling him, you have to at least try, and I thought okay, I have to enter now.”
Morrison describes the work as “a gathering up of some of my preoccupations: Amsterdam (where my brother lives) and art history.”
Wild Heart
By Katherine Johnson
Pitch: A wild Tasmanian island, a teenage daughter kept captive by her overprotective father, a handsome shipwreck survivor who is not who he seems.
Johnson, 53, grew up in Brisbane but now lives in Tasmania, a place she describes as a “rare jewel in the world, in terms of the wilderness, but also the people. I think it attracts people who are creative, and people who care about the world around them.”
Johnson’s work is set on Maria Island, where she has spent many hours, marvelling at the wonder of the natural world.
“Deep down, that’s the inspiration for this book,” she says.
“It’s about that sense of wonder that you get, in such a beautiful location. And it’s about hope, because we have such a need for hope in the world, and healing.”
Johnson has degrees in science and journalism and she managed to combine the two, when working as a science writer for the CSIRO. Her first novel, Pescador’s Wake, was inspired by the illegal fishing of the Patagonian toothfish in the waters off Heard Island. It was published by HarperCollins. She now works for the University of Tasmania.
Say Something
By Bronwyn Stuart
Pitch: When a crooked cop is murdered in a historic Tasmanian town, it looks like the work of a recently released teen killer but Detective Daphne Millar-Hobson knows a
setup when she sees one.
Stuart, 42, is the author of 23 previous books. She lives in the Adelaide Hills, and was delighted to make the short list, in part because “I couldn’t actually remember if I answered or not,” she says, sheepishly.
She has been published by a number of different publishers, and she’s done some self-publishing. “Twenty or so years ago, I was working nightshift as a security guard,” she says, “and I finished (reading) a book and didn’t like the ending and felt I could have done better.
“I’ve been writing ever since.”
She says this work is a departure from her earlier books.
“I’ve been working full-time, and I only recently quit to write full time,” she says.
“The idea for this one came to me, and I just ran with it. And when I was finished I thought, this is the best thing I’ve ever written.
“I fell in love with everything about it, so I’m very happy that it’s shortlisted.”
CROSSING THE CREEK
By Judi Morison
Pitch: A love story between a man, a woman — and a place. Two lives intertwine in this story of dispossession, identity and belonging on colonial Australia’s pastoral frontier.
Morison, 74, grew up in Sydney and lives in Coffs Harbour. She was in her 30s when she discovered her Indigenous heritage. In the 40 years since, she has immersed herself in the culture and language of the Gamilaroi people.
“I always felt it, but the actual proof didn’t come until later because it was deliberately hidden,” she says.
“My great-grandfather married an Aboriginal woman. They pretended to be white. They were afraid. Children were still being taken in those days. My novel isn’t his story but it’s inspired by his story and some of the facts of his story are in the novel. I didn’t start writing or being serious about writing until I retired in 2018 and I’ve been able to combine it with the journey of identity and discovery that I’ve been on, including Gamilaroi language, which I’m now studying in even greater depth.”
IN HER OWN WORDS
By Madeleine Cleary
Pitch:Three old school friends spend a week away together. While they drink wine and eat good food, they uncover past hurts, jealousies, the supernatural and a dead body or two.
Cleary, 33, lives in the Dandenong Ranges, and says she “always wanted to be a writer”.
“Mum was a teacher librarian, so I always had books around me when I was a child,” she says. She pitched an earlier work to publishers during one of the Australian Society of Author’s “speed dating” events and it will be published as The Butterfly Women by Affirm in 2025. “It’s based on some family research, where I discovered an ancestor who had worked in Melbourne’s red light district in the 19th century,” she says. “I always wanted to tell that story, and now this book has been shortlisted, so it feels like maybe those dreams I had are coming true.”
Summer Animals
By Madeleine Streater
Pitch: Summer Animals follows three generations of the Macleay family as they determine the fate of their once-grand sheep station, Nummerak. When a mining company makes an offer on their property, the Macleays must decide whether to fight or to sell.
Streater, 32, is from Moss Vale in the NSW Southern Highlands and lives in the Sydney suburb of Randwick. She’s in her first year as a high school English teacher, having previously worked at a bookshop, where people were constantly saying: “I wish I had your job!”
She agreed it was bliss “but so is teaching. Although I will say it’s a bit more flat out. I don’t actually know how I had time to enter the competition.”
Streater has been working on her manuscript for 10 years and she’s previously won a prize for the first chapter.
“It’s a story I haven’t really been able to let go,” she says. “My Mum is from a farming family and while it’s not about her family it is about families that find themselves having these kinds of conversations.
“I wanted to write a complex family saga. I’m so happy to be shorlisted because writing is my passion.”
Work on a second book is already underway, “but I’ve only written 10,000 words of it, because I kept going back to this one, polishing and revising it. I didn’t think it was quite ready to submit, but I’m so glad I did.”
Blackswansong
By Michael Burrows
Pitch: With his red bandana and black stallion, the Black Swan is as recognisable as Ned Kelly’s armour but while you may know the songs and the myths surrounding him, nothing can prepare you for the real story behind the bushranger. Murder, romance, convicts, betrayals and the lure of gold combine to make this bloody, rollicking adventure into a genuine Western (Australian).
Burrows, 35, adores Cormac McCarthy, Nick Cave and Bob Dylan, and so, it makes sense that he wanted to write a novel in the style of a Western, set in Australia, with “shootouts, music, settlements, adventure, all that stuff”.
He’s had one novel published previously: Where the Line Breaks was published in 2021 by Fremantle Press. It was about the search for the identity of The Unknown Digger, Australia’s most famous (imaginary) WWI poet. That book came out during Covid, which was tricky for everyone, but especially for writers keen to promote their work.
Burrows has writing in the family: his sister, Fiona Burrows, is a children’s author and illustrator and his wife, Katherine Allum, whom he met during a creative writing program while living in London, is also a writer. Her book, The Skeleton House, came out with Fremantle Press earlier this year. “We are all following our creative dreams in our own ways,” Burrows says.
