For an unpublished manuscript by a South Australian writer to be published by Wakefield Press.
Prize: $10,000
82 nominations – Judges: Michael Bollen; Cath Kenneally; Julia Beaven
Winner
Amy T. Matthews: End of the Night Girl
Two novels, each a compelling page-turner, combine teasingly in one in Amy Matthews’s End of the Night Girl. The author has carried off her risky venture with extraordinary skill, intelligence and assurance. Molly’s story, set in Adelaide and told in first person, is a sassy modern drama of a young woman’s search for purpose amid confused family, sexual and social relationships. The yarn is often funny, but is poignant in its depths. Under Molly’s pen emerges, jigsaw-like, the third-person, Holocaust story of Gienia, a murdered young Polish Jewish woman who may or may not be fictional. Part of the pleasure of Amy Matthews’s knowing text is her mastery, and subversion, of genre storytelling, creating a fresh experience for readers.
Shortlisted
Deb Kandelaars: Memoirs of a Suburban Girl
The immediacy of its language and the urgency of its telling make this Adelaide novel of domestic abuse a compelling read. Written in the second person straight to the reader, it tells the story of a teenaged woman’s experiences living with a much older, sadistic man. The author’s humour-against-the-odds, terrific ear for idiom and lively storytelling turn what might have been an inchoate howl of pain into a story of unsettling appeal, unexpected laughs and great warmth. It is a cautionary tale, but told without moral posturing, and with furious zest.
Sharon Kernot: Underground Road
This is an accomplished, slow-burning novel about the residents of a single street, whose lives are ordinary to the last degree, and as such encompass addiction, domestic violence, small acts of kindness and treachery, quiet achievements and the throwing off of a lifetime’s restrictions when push comes to shove. Jack and Mary, locked at uncomfortably close quarters on Jack’s retirement, chafe and sulk and fret. Young Damien lives in daily terror of his stepfather Marcus and broods on revenge, while his mother spirit is daily broken down. A strong social conscience informs the novel but doesn’t bog it down. Kernot’s prose is clear and plain-spoken, her eye for detail sharp. She cleverly knits together separate lives to make a vivid, gripping whole.
Louise Nicholas: The List of Last Remaining
Louise Nicholas shows herself to be a poet who has found a strong voice. Her poems in the voice of or about country women and men are perfectly gauged as to tone, rhythm and idiom, telling stories usually left untold. ‘And if the fire went out and time was short/she’d tuck our damp socks/into the cleft of her bosom/where here love for us burned like a furnace/and kept our world intact.’ Alongside these kitchen-sink poems sit homages to Catullus and poems to the kings and queens of ancient Egypt, and a section on the poet’s time in Israel. They make marvellous the moment and the world at large in the way the best poets do, speaking from the heart and leavening their lines with humour and pithy wisdom.
Cameron Raynes: The Dress and Other Stories
This is a finely crafted collection of tough and tender stories. Cameron Raynes brings characters and situations alive with the deftest of touches. Not a word is wasted. His long story ‘The Dress’, set in small-town, wartime South Australia, is convincing in its evocations of complex race, gender and class relations, all arising from an intriguing story that winds to a moving climax. Shorter pieces set in outback Western Australia and South Australia’s Port Adelaide region ring absolutely true, and are shocking in impact and eerie in their telling. These are gritty stories with a noble, generous heart.
Alastair Sarre: Prohibited Zone
This intelligent political thriller, set in the desert of the Woomera Prohibited Area, suburban Adelaide and the Fleurieu Peninsula, maintains intrigue and pace throughout. Steve West, wise-cracking mining engineer and ex-Crows footballer, is likeable and resourceful but unwilling to make commitments. Reluctantly he agrees to help Kara, a feisty human rights protester, who plans to hide Sahrah, an escapee from the Woomera Dention Centre, until she can tell the media of the abuses rife in that place. Alastair Sarre’s ear for dialogue, eye for place and character, and deft skill in pitting historical and political viewpoints against each other, make Prohibited Zone an excellent, provocative read.
Anna Solding: The Hum of Concrete
Anna Solding has created a quirky panoply of characters, wielding admirable authorial control, adopting several voices and personae, and keeping her narrative humming with flair and confidence. Children, adults, hermaphrodites, individuals from a range of ethnic backgrounds, the novel is set in Sweden and is on one level a hymn to that country and Malmo in particular. ‘You pass an entourage dressed up as Pippi Longstocking … You can’t help but laugh. These middle-aged men and women paddling for their workplace team make a mockery of the myth about reserved Swedes.’ This author has arrived fully-fledged and ready to go.
