The Prize for an Unpublished Manuscript by an Emerging Victorian Writer: Shortlist 2005

Judges
Chris Thompson (Convenor), Wayne Macauley and Meredith Rose

In 2005 this category attracted increased entries covering a wide range of subjects, writing styles and formats. After the initial read-through, the judging panel arrived at a long shortlist of works that it was felt demonstrated strong writing skills, original ideas and the ability of the author to find the ‘voice’ of the story beyond the presence of their own voice in the writing. The long shortlist generated a lively discussion focussed on the merits of each work, their strengths and weaknesses and their potential to benefit from the professional assistance included in this award. The Judges feel pleased that the final shortlist of three not only represents the strongest writing from this year’s field, but also gives a good feel for the range of works entered into this category and highlights three authors, each of whom are deserving of the encouragement and further development associated with this award.

Shortlist

I Hate Martin Amis et al
Peter Barry
In 1995, Milan Zorec, a failed, frustrated and disenfranchised writer travels from England to Sarajevo to take up a sniper’s rifle in Milosevic’s reign of ethnic cleansing. This is a slow-burning novel that lures you into its dark heart until it has you firmly in its grip. You need a strong stomach for this story. The central character is morally challenging and at times utterly hateful, but the book bores down into the centre of things – why we write, why we read, why we live. The insights into Zorec’s mind are chilling and offer frightening parallels with contemporary world events. This novel’s premise is compelling. It is blackly funny, confronting and often deeply disturbing.

Days Like Television… Days Like Television (and other stories)
James Hawthorne
A beautiful, poignant, often confronting collection of short stories. The writing is finely crafted and expertly structured in the way each one allows the story’s deeper currents to catch the reader unawares. Perhaps the strength of these stories is in the extraordinary moments that are revealed in the ordinary lives of their ordinary characters. Each story twists and turns as it carries us towards its surprising ending, catching us off-guard and inviting a second, richer reading. This powerful, compelling collection reminds us of how exciting the short story form can be. The best of these (and there are a few of them) are as good as the artform gets.

The Timeball Philosophers
Anita Punton
A rich, funny, visceral character-based work set amongst the filth and stinking mud of nineteenth century Williamstown where the colonists struggle to establish a foothold of civilised life in the shadow of the more cosmopolitan Melbourne across the bay. A strong and clearly drawn cast of characters inhabits the pages of this book. This is the kind of work you taste, smell and feel as it exposes the folly of efforts to transplant the English culture into the Australian environment. This is writing with wit, texture and a strong sense of the ironies and foibles contained within each of its hapless characters.