Garner wins $210k Windham-Campbell Prize

Helen Garner is one of nine winners of the Windham-Campbell Prizes, a US-based award that recognises English-language writers who ‘have left their mark on the world of literature or theatre’ and comes with a cash prize of US$150,000 (A$210,250) for each winner.

Garner is cited for her nonfiction work, which ‘brings acute observations and narrative skill to bear on the conflicts and tragedies of contemporary Australian life’. Garner’s nonfiction books include This House of Grief, Joe Cinque’s Consolation, The First Stone and the nonfiction collections The Feel of Steel and True Stories.

Garner said in a statement: ‘To be awarded a Windham-Campbell Prize for nonfiction validates in the most marvelously generous way the formal struggles that I’ve been engaged in over the past twenty years. It gives me the heart to keep going.’

Among the other recipients are writers from the US, Canada, Ireland, the UK and India.

The Windham-Campbell Prize, administered by the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale, is judged anonymously and has no submission process. The prize was established in 2013 with a gift from writer Donald Windham in memory of his partner Sandy M Campbell.

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Category: Local news