Inaugural $50k Historical Novel Prize shortlist announced
The Historical Novel Society Australasia (HNSA) has announced the shortlist for the inaugural ARA Historical Novel Prize.
The shortlisted novels are:
- Master of My Fate (Sienna Brown, Vintage)
- Shepherd (Catherine Jinks, Text)
- Stone Sky Gold Mountain (Mirandi Riwoe, UQP).
The three titles were chosen from a longlist of eight announced earlier this month.
Judging panel chair Linda Funnell said ‘each of these three titles not only demonstrates excellence in writing—the primary criterion for the prize—but depth of research and reader appeal’.
‘In evaluating depth of research, the judges sought narratives that seamlessly interwove authentic experience into the lives of convincingly drawn characters. The shortlisted novels present three quite different portraits of colonial Australia, and provide an immersive experience of another time and place.’
The winner of the prize will receive $50,000 while $5000 will each go to the two remaining shortlisted authors.
Earlier this year sponsor ARA announced it would double its funding for the award from an initial pledge of $30,000 to a total prize pool of $60,000 ‘in a bid to celebrate and support authors working across all facets of the literary community whose livelihoods have been adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic’.
The winner will be announced on Tuesday, 10 November.
Category: Awards Local news
