Richell Prize 2020 longlist announced

Hachette Australia and the Emerging Writers’ Festival (EWF) have announced the longlist for the 2020 Richell Prize for emerging writers.

The longlisted works are:

• ‘The Dream Weavers Apprentice’ (Kate Clinch-Jones)
• ‘Sunshine Grey’ (Alice Cook)
• ‘The Meadows’ (Brydie Cook)
• ‘The Fool’ (Ellen Cooke)
• ‘After the Snow’ (Zoe Downing)
• ‘Time to Leave’ (Phillippa Finkemeyer)
• ‘Brooksiana’ (Karli Florisson)
• ‘The Boy Who Wept Rabbits’ (Benjamin Forbes)
• ‘Fortuna’ (Hannah Foster)
• ‘Mesophyll’ (Sarah Frances)
• ‘The Children’ (Zahid Gamieldien)
• ‘July 13’ (Colleen Goth)
• ‘Cities of Refuge’ (Mark Hennessy)
• ‘Meddies’ (Kerry Jewell)
• ‘All You Took From Me’ (Lisa Kenway)
• ‘The Fractured Woman’ (Natalie Laharnar)
• ‘Flaring Out’ (Scott Limbrick)
• ‘The River’ (Kate Mayne)
• ‘Taken’ (Dinuka McKenzie)
• ‘Thin House’ (Josephine Scicluna)
• ‘Petrichor’ (Aisling Smith)
• ‘Your Mess is Mine’ (Louise Surette).

The longlist was chosen from over 800 entries. Applicants were required to submit the first three chapters and a synopsis of a proposed work of adult fiction or narrative nonfiction, with the winner to receive $10,000 and a 12-month mentorship from a Hachette publisher to help develop the work to publication.

Now in its sixth year, the Richell Prize was created in memory of former Hachette CEO Matt Richell, who died in 2014. This year’s judges are author and Richell’s widow Hannah Richell, Hachette publisher Vanessa Radnidge, Dymocks Sydney manager Jon Page and the Australian Bookseller’s Association member services development manager Galina Marinov.

Else Fitzgerald was the recipient of last year’s prize for her short story collection Nearly Curtains. The 2018 winner, Ruth McIver’s thriller I Shot the Devil, will be published in 2021.

The shortlist for the 2020 prize will be announced on 5 October and the winner will be announced on 6 November. For more information, see the EWF website.

Category: Awards Local news