The Vogel shortlist for 2024

The Vogel Prize: meet the writers who made the shortlist for 2024, and other news from the book world.

Rob Johnson has been shortlisted for the Vogel Prize.

The best thing about being one of the three judges of the Vogel Prize for young writers?

Getting to see how much superb writing talent is still out there in Australia.

The worst thing about being one of the judges?

Having to whittle the entries down to a shortlist, and then to just one winner.

I know everyone says this, but it’s difficult.

All of the shortlisted writers for the 2024 prize have produced a manuscript worthy of publication.

I’d like to introduce you to two of those writers today.

Rob Johnson, 33, is a writer and actor based in the NSW Southern Highlands. His entry is a collection of short stories, titled The Following is a Work of Fiction.

My practice, as a judge, is to read blind, by which I mean I know nothing about the writers before I started reading. It’s only now that I know that Rob’s fiction has been published by Overland, The Suburban Review, Aniko Magazine, Underground Writers and Corvus Review; and that his poetry has been published by Sunday Mornings at the River and Hills Hoist; and that his nonfiction has been published by Aniko Magazine and Audrey Journal.

For the stage, he has written The Recidivists (Red Line Productions), and he won the 2022 GWN Short Story Competition, the 2020 Albury City Short Story Award and the 2018 Hal Porter Short Story Prize. He was also shortlisted for the 2015 Hachette Australia Prize for Young Writers, and longlisted for the 2023 Furphy Short Story Award.

But wait, that’s just the writing side of his life. As an actor, his credits include The Boomkak Panto (Belvoir), Calamity Jane (Belvoir/One Eyed Man), The Torrents (Sydney Theatre Company), Musical Bang Bang (Hayes Theatre Co/Adelaide Cabaret Festival), The Millers Point Songbook (Vivid Sydney), and Rosehaven (ABC).

For his performance in Calamity Jane, Rob was nominated for the Green Room Award, Sydney Theatre Award, and Glug Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical. He is a founding member of Sydney improv troupe Bang Bang Rodeo, is a two-time NSW Theatresports Champion, and was a national finalist for the 2020 Second City/CBS Comedy Scholarship. 

Look him up. You’ll be amazed.

I was amazed by the short story collection he submitted for the Vogel. I admit to having a soft spot for those who have mastered the craft. I will read anything by the late Alice Munro, or by Curtis Sittenfeld. I read the Amor Towles collection over Easter and can’t say enough good things about it.

Rob says The Following is a Work of Fiction is a collection ­“focused on the theme of loneliness, and the constant search for purpose”. He sees characters “pushed to the limits of their emotional endurance”. He wanted to “confront the question of what it means to be alive – and what it means to die”.

Rob says he wanted to tackle short stories, specifically. There’s a real skill in getting a story told in a shorter format. He finished the last of them just in time to enter the Vogel, which had long been shimmering on his “imaginary career board”.

“I read Kate Grenville’s Lilian’s Story at university (Kate won the Vogel with the manuscript for that book in 1984) and to one day be listed among the writers considered for the prize … well, let’s put it this way, I’ve always loved writing and I thought, one day, I would like to enter that prize. The amazing list of people who have won it made me think not ‘one day I will be on that list’ – nothing like that. But I felt inspired.”

It was a complete pleasure to place Rob’s entry on the shortlist for the 2024 Vogel. He is now working on a novel, which I can’t wait to read, so please get a wriggle on, Rob!

Emily Meller is a writer from Sydney, and again I didn’t know when I started reading her entry for the 2024 Vogel, titled Blank Space, that she is also an accomplished writer, having been published in Meanjin, Debris and The Lifted Brow.

Emily Meller has been shortlisted for the Vogel Prize 2024

Emily was travelling in Japan when we caught up by phone ­earlier this week, and enjoying every moment of it, but still ­completely thrilled to make the shortlist with the manuscript for her first novel.

“I’ve been writing mostly experimental nonfiction for a number of years,” she said, “and I think it was really during the lockdowns that I felt that I wanted to expand what I was able to do.

“I wrote a few short stories before I embarked on the novel, and I always say it was like learning how to steer a boat while I was building the boat.”

Emily studied creative writing at Oxford, and was drawn to the idea of an intense female friendship, of the type experienced by many women in their 20s when they are trying to find their own path.

“I really loved my time over there. It was quite magical, very silly at times in terms of tradition and ambition, but also a wonderful setting and an amazing experience,” she said.

“I was there two years, and I came back to Sydney right before the lockdown, so I guess it was present in my mind when I sat down to write, and I think Oxford is a really great setting for ­exploring the lives of different characters, with a difficult female friendship at the centre of the novel.”

She knew the Vogel had “a long history of promoting Australian writers, and it was in the back of my mind as I was working on the novel” – and now her name is on the list of those who have been shortlisted, on her very first attempt.

It’s a little bittersweet, announcing the shortlist, since the 2024 Vogel will be the last Vogel.

Next year, we’ll introduce a new fiction prize, with a new ­sponsor.

There won’t be an age limit (the Vogel was for writers under 35) and the winning entry will be published by HarperCollins.

More details soon.

In the meantime, I’d like to thank every young writer who took a deep breath and entered the Vogel – this year, and over the past 44 years.

The list of writers published as a result of this award is just ­astonishing: Tim Winton, Kate Grenville, Mandy Sayer, Hsu-Ming Teo, Emily O’Grady (read her latest, Feast, it’s awesome) and the late and much-missed Gillian Mears and Andrew Mc­Gahan among many others.

The prize was for more than four decades sponsored by the family of the late Niels Stevns, who bought Vogel’s bread to Australia; by Allen & Unwin; and by The Australian.

Congratulations Rob and Emily.

Next week, we’ll announce this year’s winner.

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There’s a new writers festival on the horizon: Western Port Writes is an inaugural three-day literary festival at Western Port in ­Victoria, between September 6 and 8, 2024. It is volunteer-run, and the community-focused committee say they have plunged in because they’d like to bring more of the arts to their beautiful part of the world.

The festival will “showcase both established and emerging writers, with a great mix of home-grown authors”.

Early sign-ups include Sophie Cunningham, Liam Pieper, Kate Mildenhall and William McInnes, and there will be “pre-festival events” with Kylie Ladd, Garry Disher, Richard Cornish and Max Allen. You will find details online.

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Today’s pages: it took years for Hilary Burden, a British-born Australian writer, to find a publisher for her latest book, Undersong. She isn’t complaining. In fact, she says the multiple rejections made her think even harder about what she wanted to say about her journey “into Country” - which is, of course, a term commonly used by Indigenous Australians. Burden says her book is about the “deep sense of belonging” many people feel when they are close to nature in Australia. She was worried about being accused of “cultural appropriation” and she has included a foreword by Indigenous academic, “Aunty” Patsy Cameron, who says: “It is entirely understandable to me that some non-Aboriginal Tasmanians have a deep desire to experience a close relationship with the island. After all, this is their home, too.” You will find an interview with Hilary on page 13. Do take the time to read it. I don’t find many intolerant people among our readers, so I don’t expect a backlash. I thought her ideas were very interesting and I think many Australians would agree with her when she describes the deep sense of contentment many people feel when standing on Australian soil. Also today, we have Peter Craven on a lonely hearts service ; we have the marvellous Emma Harcourt on Kate Forsyth’s new novel, Psykhe; our crime and thriller expert, Robyn Walton, has reviewed three new crime thrillers for you, and we have a new poem. Enjoy! And I love to get your letters so please do send your feedback to [e-mail].