ASA/HQ Commercial Fiction Prize 2024 shortlist announced
The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) and HarperCollins publishing division HQ have announced the shortlist for the 2024 ASA/HQ Commercial Fiction Prize for an unpublished manuscript.
The shortlisted works, chosen from 165 entries, are:
- ‘The Fright of Real Feathers’ by Shashini Gamage
- ‘Hendrickje, Rembrandt’s Bathsheba’ by Kathleen Hastings
- ‘Second Skin’ by Arianne James
- ‘The Shores Between’ by A’Mhara McKey
- ‘Parallel’ by Esme Wilmot.
The winner will receive a publishing contract with HQ, with a $10,000 advance against royalties. The runner-up will receive $500 and a year’s complimentary membership with the ASA.
HQ publisher Rachael Donovan, who judged the award on a panel that also included author Cassie Hamer, bookseller Erica Rist, and HQ head of publishing Jo Mackay, said, ‘we’ve again been so impressed with the range of ideas and voices Australian writers have entered that it has been incredibly difficult to select only five manuscripts’.
The ASA/HQ Commercial Fiction Prize is a biennial award, first presented in 2020 to Sally Bothroyd for Brunswick Street Blues. The winner of the 2022 prize was Ayesha Inoon for Untethered, published in June 2023.
The winner of the ASA/HQ Commercial Fiction Prize will be announced online on 15 May 2024.
Category: Awards Local news
