ACT Writing and Publishing Awards 2014 winners announced

The winners of the 2014 ACT Writing and Publishing Awards were announced on 16 December.

The awards, which are administered by the ACT Writers Centre, recognise writing by authors from the ACT region that has been published by a small publisher of no more than 15 employees or self-published.

The winners in each category are:

Fiction

The Happiness Jar (Samantha Tidy, Storytorch Press)

Highly commended: Round and Round (Jordan Morris)

Nonfiction

18 Days: Al Jazeera English and the Egyptian Revolution (Scott Bridges, Editia)

Highly commended: Meat Pies and Mumbling Blokes: A Canberra Memoir (Margitta Acker, Ginninderra Press) and Australian Eagles: Australians in the Battle of Britain (Kristen Alexander, Barrallier Books)

Poetry

The Petrov Poems (Lesley Lebkowicz, Pitt Street Poetry)

Highly commended: Improving the News (Geoff Page, Pitt Street Poetry), Drag Down to Unlock or Place an Emergency Call (Melinda Smith, Pitt Street Poetry) and Extravagance (Irene Wilkie, Ginninderra Press) 

Children’s books

An Aussie Year (Tania McCartney, Exisle)

Highly commended: The Very Sad Fish-lady (Joy McDonald, Sorley Boy) and A Lion, a Whale and a Flea (Maree Teychenne, Starry Night Publishing).

The winners each receive a $100 Paperchain Bookstore voucher and book stickers certifying their award.

A number of awards for unpublished writing were also announced. They are:

The Marjorie Graber-McInnis Short Story Award, worth $600:

‘A White Woman in Ojin’ by Ashley Thomson

Highly commended: ‘Hookin In’ by Christine Kearney, ‘The Loose Thread and the Sterile Needles’ by Cara Lennon and ‘The Garden House’ by Alison O’Hara

The Michael Thwaites Poetry Award, worth $300:

‘Stilettos’ by Robyn Lance

Highly commended: ‘Jack and Jill’ by Gregory A Gould, ‘Calling Me In’ by Susan McGrath and ‘Implausible Birds’ by Kavya Robinson

The Anne Edgeworth Fellowship, worth $5000:

Zoya Patel and Lisa Fuller.

The winners of the Marjorie Graber-McInnis Short Story Award and Michael Thwaites Poetry Award, and up to three highly commended entries for each award, will be published in an issue of the ACT Writers Centre magazine ACTWrite.

To see the full shortlists for the awards, click here. To read the judges comments, click here. More information about the awards is available here.

Category: Local news