Ampersand Prize 2024 shortlist announced

Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing (HGCP) has announced the shortlist for the 2024 Ampersand Prize.

The shortlisted titles are:

• ‘I Love a Good Murder’ by Rahnia Collins, a YA crime novel in which ‘a murder in a local park unearths long-buried secrets from the horrific civil war in Northern Ireland’
• ‘Evie and Wren Hate Each Other’ by Steph Cuthbert, ‘a queer YA enemies-to-lovers romcom about Evie and Wren, two girls who are forced to work the same summer job’
• ‘Drowning for Beginners’ by Michael Debenham, a middle-grade novel in which 13-year-old Becky ‘discovers that her long-lost dad is a merman—just before he’s kidnapped’ and ‘must save her father and avert a war of the seas’
• ‘The Pieces of You’ by Annika Herb, in which ‘teenager Grace faces her mother’s diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s and falls in love with a girl for the first time as she navigates her way through a funny, heart-warming, and sometimes heartbreaking year’
• ‘The Little Folk of Woolaroo Creek’ by Allison Rocca, in which 11-year-old ‘misfit Joey finds a sense of belonging when he meets a little hairy creature’ from Aboriginal storytelling.

The biennial prize is open to unpublished manuscripts of children’s and YA fiction, including graphic novels. The winner, to be announced on 11 December, will receive an advance against royalties and a publishing contract from HGCP.

In 2022, Elisa Chenoweth won the Ampersand Prize for her YA novel Maria Petranelli Is Prepared for Anything (Except This).

More information about the prize is available on the HGCP website.

Category: Awards Local news