Xoum announces inaugural XO Romance Prize shortlist

Xoum Publishing has announced the shortlist for its inaugural XO Romance Prize for an unpublished manuscript.

The shortlisted works and their authors are:

• Wendy Lee Davies for ‘The Drover’s Rest’, a ‘captivating, humorous story of a young woman who inherits a rundown country pub but has hunky Zach and the myriad quirks of a small town to contend with’.
• Judith Deane-Freeman for ‘The Homecoming’, a ‘heartwarming, beautiful tale of a woman who is searching for her family history and makes a sea change that will alter her life forever’.
• Jean Flynn for ‘Lovesick’, a ‘witty and fun page-turner about a lovelorn medical receptionist seemingly destined to make bad choices’.
• S Turner for ‘Worth Fighting For’, a ‘wonderful, exhilarating story of a city girl tasked with selling the benefits of a mine to a drought-stricken town, and who ends up clashing with the one man she has vowed to stay away from’.

As previously reported by Books+Publishing, in August Xoum announced the $5000 prize to mark its new imprint, XO Romance.

Judge Alexandra Nahlous said the quality of commercial fiction writing in Australia is ‘outstanding’. ‘It was hard narrowing down the entries to just four, but we’ve done it, and they’re all cracking reads,’ said Nahlous.

The winner will be announced in January ahead of an August 2017 publication.

Category: Local news