Locust Summer by David Allan-Petale longlisted for ALS Gold Medal

David Allan-Petale is in the running to win a prestigious ALS Gold Medal for his debut novel Locust Summer. Awarded annually for an outstanding literary work in the preceding calendar year, the winner receives a gold medal from the Association for the Study of Australian Literature.

David’s book, which was also shortlisted for the Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award, charts the progress of Rowan, a reluctant son and temporary farmhand, bent on rejecting the land he grew up on. The Sydney Morning Herald called it ‘a quiet, heartfelt novel’, Westerly Magazine said it was ‘rich, complex and heart-wrenching’ and the Australian Women’s Weekly called it a ‘powerfully poignant, beautifully crafted debut’.

The Medal was inaugurated by the Australian Literature Society, which was founded in Melbourne in 1899 and incorporated into the Association for the Study of Australian Literature in 1982. ASAL members are invited to propose potential winners to the judging panel and publishers are also invited to nominate titles.

The other books on the 2022 longlist are:
Eunice Andrada, Take Care (Giramondo)
Emily Bitto, Wild Abandon (Allen and Unwin)
Katherine Brabon, The Shut Ins (Allen and Unwin)
Andy Jackson, Human Looking (Giramondo)
John Kinsella, Pushing Back (Transit Lounge)
Omar Musa, Killernova (Penguin)
SJ Norman, Permafrost (University of Queensland Press)
Elfie Shiosaki, Homecoming (Magabala Books)
Maria Takolander, Trigger Warning (University of Queensland Press)

More information is available on the ASAL website: https://www.asal.org.au/awards/als-gold-medal/