Shortlist for 2015 Vic Prem’s unpublished manuscript award announced

The shortlist for this year’s Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript has been announced.

The shortlisted titles are:

• The Dry (Jane Harper)
• Nikolai the Perfect (Jim McIntyre)
• Fine (Michelle Wright).

The judges also highlighted these commended entries:

• A Constant Hum (Alice Bishop)
• The Kafka Papers: the Revised Memoirs of Max Brod (Lucinda Berg)
• Unhomely Places (Kerry Munnery)
• Foreign Madam and the White Yogi (Chris Mooney-Singh)
• The Hidden Drawer (Imbi Neeme)

The 137 submissions for this year’s award, up from 113 entries in 2014, ‘comprised a broad range of stories which the judges described as original and energetic’.

‘While the manuscripts were diverse in genre and subject, it’s apparent that many local writers are exploring distinctively Australian themes, often through very polished prose,’ said judging convener Jeff Sparrow. ‘The stand-out entries distinguished themselves as completed works, with strong narratives as well as fine writing. The three shortlisted works are very different but each is excellent in its own way.’

The Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript is worth $15,000 and is for an unpublished fiction manuscript which may be a collection of stories or a novel.

The winner will be announced at the Emerging Writers’ Festival opening night on Tuesday 26 May.