Cheng wins 2016 Vic Prem’s Literary Award for Unpublished Manuscript

Melanie Cheng has won the 2016 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript for her book of short fiction ‘Australia Day’.

The $15,000 award was presented at the opening night of the 2016 Emerging Writers Festival. Cheng’s winning manuscript was chosen from a shortlist of three—from a total of 118 entries—that also included Jay Carmichael’s ‘Ironbark’ and Susan Johnston’s ‘Wildgirl’.

The judges said of the winner: ‘The short fiction in “Australia Day” is mature, engaging, structurally sound and beautifully nuanced. The stories, varied in length, combine to form a coherent kaleidoscope of characters and situations that sensitively explore contemporary Australia through themes of family and chance encounter. Here is a unique contribution to Australian short fiction.’

The judging panel comprised Emerging Writers’ Festival general manager Kate Callingham and writers Maxine Beneba Clarke and Jennifer Down.

Last year’s winner, Jane Harper’s crime novel The Dry, was published by Pan Macmillan this month and has debuted in the top 10 in its first week.

For more information about the award, click here.

Category: Local news