Penguin Literary Prize 2024 shortlist announced

Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) has announced the shortlist for the 2024 Penguin Literary Prize.

The shortlisted manuscripts are:

• ‘What Is Left for Us’ by Sophie Stern (Sydney, NSW)—When Rebecca returns to Bondi after 10 years, she is forced to confront her sister and the secrets that tore them apart.
  
• ‘Sedition’ by Marisa Wikramanayake (Melbourne, Vic)—English expat teacher Clare finds herself alone in civil war-era Sri Lanka post the tsunami, her life colliding with those of isolated Nivi and the directionless George as they try to support each other and subvert the expectations of others.
  
• ‘Happy at Work’ by Ellen Rodger (Sydney, NSW)—Thematically linked stories about work and recreation, with settings including a laundromat, massage parlours, offices, an arts workshop, a physical culture competition, and a strip club.
  
• ‘Those Days of Hill and Sea’ by Chloe Adams (Melbourne, Vic)—In 1948, a young Australian woman travels to Japan to join the Allied occupation force. There she is confronted with moral ambiguity and the consequences of her own transgressions.
  
• ‘Ancestors’ by Jonny Zweck (Adelaide, SA)—After the suspicious death of their mother, 14-year-old Izzy Albrecht must protect his little brother as they escape their murderous father, traversing the civil war-torn tropical island of Bougainville in their quest for safety.
  
• ‘A Home in the Harshlands’ by Kate King (Tablelands Region, Qld)—A young mother creates a home and family with an outlaw obstetrician, a midwife and an elderly man: providing contraband medicine and care to disenfranchised pregnant women, and overcoming her fears of abandonment to find her daughter’s father.

Launched in 2017, the Penguin Literary Prize was established to find, nurture and develop new Australian authors of literary fiction. It offers the winner $20,000 and the opportunity to publish with PRH.

Said PRH publisher Meredith Curnow: ‘The team of readers across Penguin Random House and United Book Distributors have roamed widely and again excelled. The shortlist includes stories set in Bondi, Sri Lanka, laundromats, Japan, Bougainville and remote Western Australia. The judges have an interesting time ahead of them.’

Previous winners of the Penguin Literary Prize include Hitch by Kathryn Hind, published June 2019; The Spill by Imbi Neeme, published June 2020; The Rabbits by Sophie Overett, published July 2021; Denizen by James McKenzie Watson, published in 2022; On a Bright Hillside in Paradise by Annette Higgs, published in 2023; and Jade and Emerald by Michelle See-Tho, due to be published in July 2024.

The 2024 winner will be announced on Thursday 6 June 2024.

Category: Awards Local news