To celebrate our our inaugural New Australian Writing (NAW) Award shortlist, we’re inviting everyone to take part in our NAW Reading Challenge!

Take the six book challenge and commit to reading the entire shortlist, or the three book challenge and read any three books on the shortlist, by Friday 17 October. Participants will have the opportunity to share their thoughts on the shortlisted books and win gift vouchers.

Here is what you’ll receive upon signing up (along with the enjoyment of reading wonderful Australian books from talented new writers!):

• A regular email from us offering encouragement and prompting discussion questions.
• The opportunity to be published on the Readings blog, sharing your thoughts on a particular book.
• The opportunity to win a $100 Readings gift voucher – we’ll be giving one away to the best contributor to each discussion post.
• Official acknowledgement of completing the challenge on our website.

In the weeks leading up to the winner’s announcement on Wednesday 29 October, we’ll be featuring discussion and responses to each book on our blog. Here is our blog schedule:

• Wed 17 September: The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane
• Wed 24 September: The Tribe by Michael Mohammed Ahmad
• Wed 1 October: Only the Animals by Ceridwen Dovey
• Wed 8 October: After Darkness by Christine Piper
• Wed 15 October: An Elegant Young Man by Luke Carman
• Wed 22 October: Foreign Soil by Maxine Beneba Clarke
• Mon 27 October: Which book should win? Make your case!

In the week before each listed date, we’ll email you and ask for your contributions to the discussion. Our favourite responses will be published on our blog and social media. The best contributor each week will win a $100 gift voucher.

If you’ve already read some (or all!) of the books on the shortlist, you are still very welcome to sign up for the challenge and contribute to the discussion.

To officially sign up to the challenge, please use the form below:

Fill out my online form.