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Shortlist for 2016 Vic Prem’s unpublished manuscript award announced

The shortlist for this year’s Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript has been announced.

The shortlisted titles are:

  • ‘Ironbark’ by Jay Carmichael: ‘an exquisitely poetic, stylistically sure literary novel set in a stiflingly small Australian country town’
  • ‘Australia Day’ by Melanie Cheng: a collection of short stories that ‘combine to form a coherent kaleidoscope of characters and situations that sensitively explore contemporary Australia through themes of family and chance encounter’
  • ‘Wildgirl’ by Susan Johnston: ‘a romantic, laugh-out-loud [YA] novel with serious underlying themes exploring what it means to be human’.

The judges also commended four entries:

  • ‘Trouble Sleeping’ (Jacquie Byron)
  • ‘The Earth Below’ (Katy Barnett)
  • ‘Failed Manhood’ (Chris Quigley)
  • ‘To Skin a Rabbit’ (Mark Brandi).

The judging panel comprised Emerging Writers Festival general manager Kate Callingham and writers Maxine Beneba Clarke and Jennifer Down.

The Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript is open to unpublished fiction manuscripts and is worth $15,000.

The winner will be announced at the Emerging Writers’ Festival opening night on 14 June. For more information on the shortlist, click here.

 

Category: Local news