‘Only the Animals’ wins inaugural Readings New Australian Writing Award
Ceridwen Dovey’s Only the Animals (Hamish Hamilton) has won the inaugural Readings New Australian Writing Award.
Dovey’s novel was chosen from a shortlist of six for the $4000 prize, which was established earlier this year to ‘increase the commercial success of first or second books by Australian authors’.
‘Only the Animals is surely one of the boldest Australian short-story collections in recent years,’ said the judges in a statement. ‘Here is a rare beast—a work of fiction that is not only richly imaginative, but also intelligent, ambitious and universal in theme.’
The judges were Readings managing director Mark Rubbo, books division manager Martin Shaw, Readings Monthly editor Belle Place, digital content coordinator Bronte Coates and author Hannah Kent, who praised all of the shortlisted authors for their ‘extraordinary talent, vision and promise’. ‘All deserve to be read by a wide and varied audience,’ she said.
Dovey said she was ‘honoured to be the inaugural winner’ and ‘proud simply to be on the shortlist beside so many authors whose work I admire’.
Category: Local news
