Fuller wins 2020 ACT Book of the Year for ‘Ghost Bird’

Lisa Fuller has won the 2020 ACT Book of the Year award for her debut young adult novel Ghost Bird (UQP). The 2020 award was delayed due to Covid-19.

Fuller, a Wulli Wulli woman from Eidsvold, Queensland, wins a $10,000 cash prize.

Robyn Cadwallader, Jessica Friedmann and Andrew Galan, who made up the peer panel judging the award, described Ghost Bird as a complex and ambitious novel that explores colonial trauma through the supernatural.

Ghost Bird won the 2020 Readings Young Adult Book Prize, the 2020 CBCA Book of the Year in the older readers honour books category, and tied for the 2020 Norma K Hemming Award for a long work. The novel was the winner of the 2017 David Unaipon Award for an unpublished manuscript.

The ACT Book of the Year recognises literary excellence by supporting the development of ACT-based writers, and promoting writing in the state. The award is for books written by authors who reside, or can demonstrate their arts practice is based, in the ACT.

Bodies of Men by Nigel Featherstone and The Enchantment of the Long-haired Rat by Tim Bonyhady were highly commended for the 2020 award, receiving $2000 each. Sandra Renew and John Clanchy receive $1000 each for their shortlisting.

The winner of the 2019 award was Cadwallader for her novel Book of Colours (HarperCollins).

Category: Awards Local news