Berberovic wins inaugural WestWords Prize

Vahida Berberovic has won the inaugural WestWords Prize for her novel Piggy Tales.

Berberovic receives a publication deal with WestWords Books, the adult trade imprint of WestWords.

Piggy Tales was chosen from a shortlist of seven titles.

Said the judges: ‘Captured in this work is a universal diasporic rage. Handled with subtlety and keen insight, Piggy Tails tells the story of Selma, a Bosnian refugee whose family was exterminated in a massacre in the Bosnian War. She survived and was brought to Australia. Trying to lock up her grief and survivor guilt, she has built a near perfect life with no reminders of her past — until she hears about the extradition of the architect of the attempted genocide to Den Hague as a war criminal, and her life disintegrates. Accessible and cathartic, specific to time and place, the work could be effortlessly applied to current wars and to the refugee experience sitting within Australia’s vast diasporic communities.’

Berberovic teaches English and communications at UTS College, Sydney and is a refugee from Bosnia. She has previously published fiction and poetry in literary outlets, including Cape magazine, Academy of the Heart and Mind, Down in the Dirt, Quail Bell and Ariel Chart. 

The WestWords Prize, introduced in 2024, is a new prize for previously unpublished works of fiction or narrative nonfiction, where the author has a connection to Western Sydney. 

Category: Awards Local news