Hazel Rowley Fellowship shortlist announced
Nine Australian writers have been shortlisted for this year’s $20,000 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship.
Della Rowley, sister of the late biographer Hazel Rowley, said, “We had a record number of applications in this our 15th and final year. We had such a high calibre of proposals and diversity of intriguing subjects, which allowed us to select an outstanding shortlist.”
The nine shortlisted writers are:
- Ali Keshtkar (Vic), for “Twelve Hours to Silence”, a memoir about facing execution as a political prisoner in Iran
- Ashleigh Wilson (NSW), for a biography of Barry Humphries
- Cath Bowdler (NSW), for writing “Afterburn”, about the 2019 to 2020 Black Summer fires and the experience of survivors
- Flavia Marcello (NSW), for writing about WW2 Italian resistance fighter Carla Capponi
- Jeff Sparrow (Vic), for writing about Australian writer, poet and activist Lesbia Harford
- Jennifer Martin (Vic), for a biography of Walkley Award-winning journalist Eva Sommer
- Jillian Graham (Vic), for writing about composer Elena Kats-Chernin
- Monique Rooney (ACT), for a biography of writer Ruth Park
- Theodore Ell (ACT), for writing about Australian poet Les Murray.
This year’s judges are Clare Wright, Christos Tsiolkas, Della Rowley and Lynn Buchanan.
The organisers said, “The Fellowship has been running for the past 14 years since Hazel died in March 2011. It was created to honour Hazel as a skilled biographer and to encourage others to write with the same care and enthusiasm in this time-consuming and exacting genre.
“During the course of the Fellowship we have given over $300,000 to writers. Our money has been invested wisely by Australian Communities Foundation, which has grown the value of the donations we have received, and we have been able to increase the Fellowship to $20,000 from the initial $10,000. None of this would have been possible without our partnerships with Writers Victoria, Adelaide Writers’ Week and Australian Communities Foundation.”
This year’s winner will be announced on 11 March.
Category: Awards Local news
