Walker named 2021 UQP Quentin Bryce Award winner

Sarah Walker has been named the winner of the 2021 UQP Quentin Bryce Award for her essay collection The First Time I Thought I Was Dying.

Established in 2020, the award is for a UQP book that celebrates women’s lives and/or promotes gender equality. Walker will receive $10,000 in prize money and an additional $5000 will go towards marketing and publicity for the forthcoming title.

Dame Quentin Bryce describes The First Time I Thought I Was Dying as an ‘insightful, timely and brave book that excavates the many ways that social conditioning and gender stereotyping impact on how we experience our bodies and our minds’.

‘As soon as I started reading Sarah Walker’s book, I knew I was in the presence of a special writer. There’s a freshness and immediacy to the voice, and an incisiveness and intelligence to the writing, that captured my attention throughout,’ said Bryce.

‘I am excited and moved to be the recipient of the 2021 Quentin Bryce Award. To have this support behind my first publication is such an act of faith and generosity, for which I am very grateful,’ said Walker. ‘I am proud to receive it for a work that advocates for an end to bodily shame.’

The inaugural UQP Quentin Bryce Award went to Ellen van Neerven for their poetry collection Throat.

The First Time I Thought I Was Dying will be published in August 2021.

Category: Awards Local news