Aspiring authors vie for Hungerford Award
Five aspiring authors have been short listed for a coveted West Australian literary prize and book deal. Fremantle Mayor Brad Pettitt unveiled the all-female quintet last Thursday as the short list for this year's City of Fremantle T.A.G. Hungerford Award.
The city is a new sponsor of the $12,000 biennial T.A.G. Hungerford, named for the iconic West Australian author and new- writing supporter who was named a West Australian State Living Treasure in his lifetime.
Romanian-born, Swedish-raised writer Mihaela Nicolescu was among the five, grabbing a short listing for a manuscript titled Other Place - a short-story collection set in three countries, including Australia and the UK, where she lived for 13 years and completed a creative writing master's degree.
The now Leeming-based author said writing competitions such as the T.A.G. Hungerford were a wonderful way for the publishing community to reach out to the new writers, not just established authors.
"When you're at a certain stage of your writing, a lot of it happens in your own little dark room . . . and you hope that something will become of it and most of the time there is just silence," she said.
"Getting a response, getting some kind of acknowledgment is so incredibly gratifying."
Swanbourne-based former medical practitioner Louise Allan was also on the list, with Donnybrook-based creative writing lecturer and Katharine Susannah Prichard Award winner Nicole Sinclair, Herne Hill-based horse trainer and Murdoch University equine behavioural scientist Portland Jones, and Broome- based charity worker Madelaine Dickie.
Dickie's manuscript, Troppo, was written in West Java after she received a Prime Minister's Australia Asia Endeavour Award to move to Indonesia to complete the novel.
Sixty-one authors submitted manuscripts for this year's awards, with judge and Fremantle Press fiction publisher Georgia Richter saying local writers had explored how West Australians interacted with their near neighbours.
Richter said the awards were judged on market appeal, content and style, with short-listed authors sometimes also supported to publication.
The winner will be announced early next year.
