Meet the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction shortlist 2017
We’ve announced the shortlist for the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction 2017. Here, we introduce the six shortlisted authors.
Find more information about this year’s shortlisted books (including the judges’ report) here.
Sam Carmody
Sam Carmody is an award-winning songwriter and novelist from Geraldton on the rural coast of Western Australia. His forthcoming debut EP, Shadow in the Dream, is due for release in October. The Windy Season is his debut novel.
Read the judges’ comments for The Windy Season here
You can meet Sam Carmody at this year’s Melbourne Writers Festival here
Melanie Cheng
Melanie Cheng is a writer and general practitioner. Of Chinese-Australian heritage, she was born in Adelaide, grew up in Hong Kong and now lives in Melbourne. In 2016 she won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript. Australia Day is her debut story collection.
Read the judges’ comments for Australia Day here
You can meet Melanie Cheng at this year’s Melbourne Writers Festival here
Heather Taylor Johnson
Heather Taylor Johnson was born in the United States and relocated to Australia in 1999. She has published four volumes of verse and her debut novel was Pursuing Love and Death, a darkly comic family saga. She lives in Adelaide. Jean Harley Was Here is her second novel.
Read the judges’ comments for Jean Harley Was Here here
You can meet Heather Taylor Johnson at this year’s Melbourne Writers Festival here
Hannah Kent
Hannah Kent’s first novel was Burial Rites, which won numerous awards and was an international bestseller. Kent is also the co-founder and publishing director of Australian literary publication Kill Your Darlings. The Good People is her second novel.
Read the judges’ comments for The Good People here
You can meet Hannah Kent at this year’s Melbourne Writers Festival here
Photograph by Lauren Bamford
Marija Peričić
Marija Peričić grew up in Perth, Western Australia, the child of German and Croatian immigrants. She holds a Masters degree in English Literature, and now lives in Melbourne where she teaches English as a foreign language. The Lost Pages is her debut novel.
Read the judges’ comments for The Lost Pages here
You can meet Marija Peričić at this year’s Melbourne Writers Festival here
Jane Rawson
Jane Rawson’s first novel, A wrong turn at the Office of Unmade Lists, won the Small Press Network’s 2014 ‘Most Underrated Book’ Award and was shortlisted for the Aurealis Award for best science fiction novel. Her novella, Formaldehyde, was one of the 2015 Seizure Viva La Novella Prize winners. She lives in Melbourne’s inner west. From the Wreck is her second novel.
Read the judges’ comments for From the Wreck here
You can meet Jane Rawson at this year’s Melbourne Writers Festival here
