Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship 2023 shortlist announced

The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has announced the 2023 Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship shortlist.

The shortlisted applicants, chosen by authors Mirandi Riwoe and Anna Spargo-Ryan, are:

• Emily Bitto for ‘Reasons to Leave’, ‘a multi-protagonist novel about a wave of Czechoslovakian migrants to the western suburbs of Melbourne’
• Kate Mildenhall for ‘We Bought a Town’, ‘a contemporary thriller set over three days and told from the perspective of nine characters’
• Kirli Saunders for ‘Yaraman’, ‘a First Nations queer romance … centred around youth incarceration and caring for land’
• Michael Winkler for ‘Griefdogg’, ‘a “sort of sequel” to his Miles Franklin–shortlisted Grimmish … touching on issues of masculinity and vulnerability, alongside climate change and globalisation’.

The Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship, worth $35,000, is offered annually to an Australian author to provide time to work on a current manuscript. A runner-up will also receive $15,000. The winner of the 2022 scholarship was Ashley Hay for her manuscript ‘The Running Dream’.

The ASA will announce the 2023 winner and runner-up on its website on 29 November.

Category: Awards Local news