Text Prize 2022 shortlist announced

The shortlist for the Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing, worth $10,000, has been announced.

The shortlisted manuscripts are:

• ‘Bellamy Jones and the Lost Treeheart’ by Emily Beck (middle-grade), about 12-year-old Bellamy Jones who must participate in a global robotics tournament with her sister’s hand-built robot in a quest to save her family’s home
• ‘How to Be Normal’ by Ange Crawford (YA), a contemporary novel about friendships, tightly kept secrets and a quirky main character figuring out who she is
• ‘One Thing You Can Feel’ by Robbie Taylor Hunt (YA), a dark fantasy about the power of friendship and confronting your deepest fears
• ‘Year of the Dog’ by Kate McCabe (middle-grade), about neurodivergent 11-year-old Lewis who is keen to prove to his parents that he can look after a dog of his own
• ‘Finding Liminas: The sudden tree’ by Bria McCarthy (YA), a fantasy novel that reimagines Australian landscapes and explores finding courage, set in a world where giant weather monsters called Seasons have caused destruction
• ‘The Collector of Gifts’ by Jamie Ramjan (YA), which follows Willa who finds nothing is as it seems in the Empire of Edan, where every child is placed in an orphanage to develop their unique, mystical gift so that they can help save their world
• ‘Let’s Never Speak of This Again’ by Megan Williams (YA), about 16-year-old best friends Abby and Ella who discovers a shift in their friendship when new girl Chloe comes into the picture.

The winner, along with the recipient of the Steph Bowe Mentorship, chosen from entrants to the prize, will be announced in late June.

Last year’s Text Prize winner was Alice Boyle for her YA novel Dancing Barefoot, which is set to be published in September. For more information about this year’s shortlist, see the Text website.

Category: Awards Junior Local news