Crismani wins 2023 Boundless Indigenous Writer’s Mentorship

Wiradjuri writer and filmmaker Edoardo Crismani has been awarded the 2023 Boundless Indigenous Writer’s Mentorship for the manuscript ‘Finding Billy Brown’ and will be mentored by Wiradjuri author Tara June Winch.

‘Finding Billy Brown’ is a fast-paced story about an AFL player who is hit by a car, only to wake up in the 1930s, where he meets his boxer great-grandfather. The work was previously shortlisted for the 2022 David Unaipon Award and had been shortlisted in previous years for the Boundless mentorship and Black&Write fellowship. Mentorship judge Jane Harrison says: ‘I can see this manuscript being published and contributing to a growing body of texts that tell First Nations stories in a bold, uncompromising and engaging style.’

A writer of short stories and poetry, Crismani is also a filmmaker and was nominated for an Australian Writers’ Guild Award for the documentary The Panther Within, about his grandfather, the champion boxer Joe Murray.

Of his Boundless win Crismani said he was ‘excited for the opportunity to work with a mentor to polish the mechanics of the story, and also daunted to receive feedback from a publisher, but I can’t wait to get started and see what the process brings! Thanks to Writing NSW and Text for making it happen!’

The Boundless Mentorship is presented by Text Publishing and Writing NSW, with the support of the First Nations Australia Writers Network (FNAWN) and Booktopia. It is awarded annually to an emerging Indigenous writer who has made substantial progress on a fiction or nonfiction writing project. The winner is paired with a senior Indigenous writer for a structured year-long mentorship as they develop their manuscript.

Two previous winners of the prize have signed publishing contracts with Text: John Morrissey’s debut short story collection Firelight will be published in August 2023; and Lenora Thaker’s historical novel The Pearl of Shantytown is due to be published in 2024.

Category: Awards Local news