City of Fremantle pledges to support iconic WA literature award

The City of Fremantle has given its support for the next six years for the prestigious T.A.G. Hungerford Award alongside existing partners writingWA, The West Australian and Fremantle Press. As the naming sponsor, the City will provide the winning writer’s cash prize of $12,000 and will play a major role in hosting Fremantle events associated with the award.

The newly renamed City of Fremantle T.A.G. Hungerford Award is given for a full-length manuscript of fiction or creative non-fiction by a Western Australian author previously unpublished in book form. It honours Tom Hungerford, a prolific and much admired Western Australian author who was also a generous supporter of new and emerging writers.

Fremantle Press sales and distribution manager Clive Newman got to know the late Tom Hungerford during the course of the award’s twenty-year history.

‘If Tom were still alive he’d be stoked to know that the future of the Hungerford Award is secure for the next six years,’ said Newman.

‘Tom was thrilled to be approached by then Fremantle Press CEO Ian Templeman to lend his name to this award and he, like us, would see a partnership with the City of Fremantle as a kind of homecoming,’ said Newman.

The Hungerford Award has proven a major catalyst for stimulating growth in the WA literary sector with former winners such as Simone Lazaroo, Gail Jones and Brenda Walker going on to gain national and international recognition.

Brad Pettitt, Mayor of Fremantle, said the City had a vibrant and exciting connection to the arts with strong claims to being a city of literature.

‘Not only is Fremantle home to literary organisations like Fremantle Press and the Literature Centre, we are also proud to have provided a base for significant writers such as Craig Silvey, Joan London, Tim Winton, Alan Carter and Ben Elton,’ said Mayor Pettitt.

‘The City of Fremantle T.A.G. Hungerford Award is a tangible way for our community to foster and celebrate the literary merit and originality that is so much a part of Western Australian culture,’ said Mayor Pettitt.

Chair of writingWA Rosemary Sayer said the 2012 T.A.G. Hungerford Award attracted 48 entrants who were commended by the judges for their exceedingly high standard of submissions.

‘The 2012 award was made possible by the Friends and Family of the late Bill Warnock and we’re thrilled that Diana Warnock will launch the winning book, The Weaver Fish by Robert Edeson,’ said Sayer.

‘We’re sure his novel will be a great inspiration to writers currently preparing manuscripts for the next round of submissions,’ said Sayer.

Submissions for the 2014 City of Fremantle T.A.G. Hungerford Award will open on Tuesday 25 March 2014. The winning author will receive a cash prize of $12,000 and a publishing contract with Fremantle Press. Invitations to submit manuscripts will be advertised in The West Australian books section and application forms will be available from www.writingWA.org.

The 2014 City of Fremantle T.A.G. Hungerford Award is presented in association with writingWA, The West Australian and Fremantle Press.