Anticipation Peaks as Four Writers Contend for the City of Fremantle Hungerford Award
Four Western Australian writers are shortlisted and in the running for the City of Fremantle Hungerford Award.
Judged anonymously, the City of Fremantle Hungerford Award is a biennial prize awarded for an unpublished manuscript by a Western Australian author for a work of fiction, narrative non-fiction or young adult fiction. The winner receives a cash prize of $15,000, a publishing contract with Fremantle Press and a fellowship with the Centre for Stories.
This year, 81 manuscripts were entered into the award. Now the longlist of 10 has been narrowed down to a shortlist of four. Speaking on behalf of Fremantle Press, Publisher Georgia Richter said, ‘I am excited by the range of these manuscripts – each distinct, singular and arresting in its own way – and delighted to meet four new talented Western Australian writers.’
The shortlist includes three novels and a work of narrative non-fiction.
The 2024 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award shortlist is:
· Far From Wonderful by Howard McKenzie-Murray (fiction)
· Screech by Jodie Tes (fiction)
· I Remember Everything by Fiona Wilkes (fiction)
· የተስፋ ፈተና / Trials of Hope by Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes (narrative non-fiction / poetry)
Fremantle based author Howard McKenzie-Murray said getting shortlisted was like ‘catching a tailwind’. He describes his novel Far From Wonderful as somewhere between a coming-of-age and a journey-home story narrated by 21-year-old med-student Maud Tarkington. Howard said, ‘Maud brings you with her through a 24-hour period spanning her 21st birthday and her brother’s funeral. It’s a story about the unrushable, unsexy, awkward and messy grieving process and its collateral damage.’
Writing from nearby Hilton, Jodie Tes said being shortlisted for the award for a second time is just as thrilling as when she made the list back in 2016. Jodie said her novel was called Screech, ‘Set in modern day Fremantle, equal parts tragic and comic, it follows ten-year-old Bonnie and her pet cockatoo, Screech, who seek answers to questions that no one wants to answer.’
PhD candidate Fiona Wilkes is based in Kinross. Fiona said her historical novel I Remember Everything spans the decade after 1979 as main character Billie navigates the darkest years of the AIDS epidemic. Fiona said, ‘The novel is an exploration of what it means to love your found family, at times more than your real one, and the lengths you will go to in order to save them.’
Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes lives with his wife, who is also a published writer, in Bentley. የተስፋ ፈተና / Trials of Hope is a dual-language manuscript that mixes poetry and prose, Amharic and English. It tells Yirga’s life story from boy shepherd in Ethiopia to human rights academic in Australia. Yirga said, ‘To be shortlisted for the Hungerford means an opening of hope, a realisation that stories and languages like mine could have places in a world where they are rarely heard. People who live carrying multiple worlds shouldn’t have to hide or sacrifice one world to exist in the other world. This too is our home; our stories can be heard.’
The 2024 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award was judged by Seth Malacari, Richard Rossiter and Marcella Polain alongside Fremantle Press publishers Georgia Richter and Cate Sutherland. The full judges report can be downloaded here: 2024 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award Judges’ Report
The winner will be announced on Thursday 24 October 2024 at Fremantle Arts Centre. Tickets are free and will be available from the Fremantle Press website from Friday 20 September.
Tickets to the 2024 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award ceremony.
For more information, including pre-existing written author interviews, please contact Claire Miller, Head of Sales and Marketing, Fremantle Press, cmiller@fremantlepress.com.au or 0419 837 841.