‘Overland’ Victoria University Short Story Prize 2017 winners announced

Amanda Niehaus has won the 2017 Overland Victoria University Short Story Prize for new and emerging writers for her story ‘Breeding Season’.

Chosen from a shortlist of 10, ‘Breeding Season’ explores a young scientist’s grief over a miscarriage as she works on a ‘devastating experiment on pregnant marsupial mice’. The story is also the basis for Niehaus’ novel-in-progress of the same name.

Overland also announced two runners-up: Allan Drew for ‘Wharekaho Beach, 1944’, about a Coromandel farm manager who encounters a US Destroyer during World War II; and Judyth Emanuel for ‘Girlish Roadkill’, a story of four people entangled in ‘The Search for Love’.

This year’s judges were author Frank Moorhouse, UQP editor Ian See, writer and academic Enza Gandalfo, and Overland publicity officer Rachael McGuirk.

Niehaus will receive $8000, and all three stories will feature in the next issue of Overland in late September.

For more information about the prize, click here.

Category: Local news