Noni, Black win 2019 Inky Awards

Lynette Noni and Holly Black have won the 2019 Inky Awards, presented by State Library Victoria (SLV).

Noni’s dystopian YA novel Whisper (Pantera) won the Gold Inky Award for an Australian book, along with a cash prize of $2000. The novel follows Jane Doe, who has been locked away and experimented on for more than two and a half years before she uncovers the truth about the program she is a part of, thanks to the influence of a new evaluator.

US author Holly Black’s The Cruel Prince (A&U) won the Silver Inky Award for an international book.

Readers aged between 12 and 19 voted online for the winners from shortlists chosen by a panel of teenage judges.

Noni said she was ‘so honoured not only to have been considered amongst the longlisted titles written by such talented authors, but to have been chosen by teenagers as the winner’. ‘To know that Whisper resonated so strongly with teens and that the concept of voice and the power of words spoke to so many readers is truly humbling.’

Now in their 13th year, the Inky Awards were founded in 2007 to recognise local and international fiction, poetry, anthologies and graphic novels written for young adults. Until this year, the awards were facilitated by the Centre for Youth Literature, which SLV discontinued in March.

For more information about the Inky Awards, visit the Inside a Dog website.

Category: Junior Local news