Schmidt wins 2022 Hungerford Award

Molly Schmidt has won the 2022 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award for her manuscript Salt River Road. She receives $15,000 in prize money and a publishing contract with Fremantle Press.

Salt River Road is a coming-of-age story set in regional Western Australia in the 1970s that draws on Schmidt’s experience of losing her father to cancer. Schmidt said it explores ‘the reality of a childhood lost to hospital corridors and the gaping hole a parent leaves behind’.

In a parallel narrative, the novel acknowledges the stories and wisdom of the Traditional Custodians of the Great Southern region, the Menang and Goreng Noongar people. Schmidt said: ‘I wrote this story in consultation with Noongar Elders from the Albany area and I am so grateful for their time and friendship. I hope Salt River Road can become a poignant example of the possibilities of cross-cultural collaboration.’

Fremantle Press publisher and Hungerford judge Georgia Richter said Salt River Road is interspersed with beautiful passages of verse—an effective way of navigating the difficult, changeable journey of grief.

Richter said: ‘Salt River Road is about the five Tetley kids, who are falling apart in aftermath of the death of their beloved mother. With the family farm in ruins and their father unable to transcend his grief, Rose Tetley is discovered running away from home by Noongar Elders Patsy and Herbert who have their own history with Rose’s parents. This novel focuses on the fabric of small-town life, and the complexity of family and community relationships.’

Schmidt was chosen as the winner from a shortlist of four announced in September by judges Natasha Lester, Rashida Murphy and Richard Rossiter.

The City of Fremantle Hungerford Award is presented biennially to a full-length manuscript of fiction or narrative nonfiction by a Western Australian author previously unpublished in book form. Marias Papas was the 2020 winner for her novel Skimming Stones (submitted as ‘I Belong to the Lake’) which was published by Fremantle Press in 2021.

For more information on the award and this year’s winner, see the Fremantle Press website.

Category: Awards Local news