The winners of several Australian and New Zealand unpublished manuscript awards have been announced over the past month.<\/p>\n
Perth-based writer Rebecca Higgie was named the winner of the inaugural Fogarty Literary Award<\/a>, worth $20,000, for her YA novel The History of Mischief<\/em>. Higgie\u2019s novel follows Jessie and Kay after they lose their parents in a car accident and move to their grandmother\u2019s house in Guildford, a suburb of Perth. \u2018There they find a mysterious book hidden beneath the floorboards\u2014a book of magical stories that inspires younger sister Jessie to random acts of mischief.\u2019<\/p>\n The biennial prize is a partnership between Fremantle Press and the Fogarty Foundation, and is awarded to an unpublished manuscript by a Western Australian author aged between 18 and 35 for a work of fiction, narrative nonfiction or young adult fiction. The two other novels shortlisted for the prize<\/a>, Emma Young\u2019s\u00a0The Last Bookstore<\/em>\u00a0and Michael Burrows\u2019\u00a0Where the Line Breaks<\/em>,\u00a0will be offered publishing contracts by Fremantle Press.<\/p>\n Text Publishing has announced the winners of its two annual unpublished manuscript awards: the Text Prize for YA and children\u2019s writing, and the Michael Gifkins Prize for an unpublished novel by an New Zealand writer.<\/p>\n Melbourne writer Georgina Young won the 2019 Text Prize<\/a>, worth $10,000, for her YA novel, Loner<\/em>. A \u2018humorous and heartfelt exploration of new adulthood\u2019 set in Melbourne\u2019s South Eastern suburbs, the book follows Lona, who spends her days sneaking into the dark room at her old art school and DJing the roller disco at Planet Skate, until her life is thrown by meeting a \u2018bass-playing, cello-shredding, charming-as-all-hell suitor\u2019.<\/p>\n UK-based New Zealand writer Tom Remiger won the 2019 Michael Gifkins prize<\/a>, worth NZ$10,000 (A$9470), for his novel Soldiers<\/em>, which tells the story of a young officer, Lieutenant Breen, who becomes obsessed by the death of Corporal Daniel Cousins in what is apparently a training accident.<\/p>\n Both Young and Remiger receive publishing contracts with Text, and both novels will be published in 2020.<\/p>\n Finally, the shortlist for Penguin Random House Australia\u2019s inaugural Write It! Fellowship program has been announced. The fellowship program aims to \u2018find, nurture and develop unpublished writers across all genres with a focus on underrepresented sections of our community\u2019. The winning applicants will receive a mentorship from PRH editors with the hope of publication. To see the shortlisted authors and their manuscripts, see Books+Publishing<\/em>‘s coverage here<\/a>.<\/p>\n (Pictured: Rebecca Higgie)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The winners of several Australian and New Zealand unpublished manuscript awards have been announced over the past month. Perth-based writer Rebecca Higgie was named the winner of the inaugural Fogarty Literary Award, worth $20,000, for her YA novel The History of Mischief. Higgie\u2019s novel follows Jessie and Kay after they lose their parents in a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2158,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-local-news"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}