Annie Fogarty AM launches the Fogarty Literary Award with the Fremantle Press Champions of Literature
Almost a decade ago that the inaugural Champions of Literature event took place at my home. Like me, some of those champions are still supporting the Press all these years later.
As Fremantle Press heads into its 50th year, I’m proud to help continue the important work that Fremantle Press does: both on a personal level, and also as the Chair of the Fogarty Foundation through our sponsorship of the Fogarty Literary Award.
The Fogarty Literary Award is a biennial prize awarded to an unpublished manuscript by a Western Australian author aged between 18 and 35 for a work of adult fiction, narrative non-fiction, young adult fiction or a verse novel. The winner receives a cash prize of $20,000, a publishing contract with Fremantle Press and a fellowship with Centre for Stories.
On 15 March 2025, the submission portal for the Award will open and manuscripts by young Western Australian authors will start pouring in to Fremantle Press.
The four judges will have less than two months to make their way through 30 to 65 manuscripts, reading between 12 and 30,000 words per person per day. The cream of the crop will be longlisted, and each judge will go into battle for their favourite manuscript, and to select a shortlist. These will be the stories which the judges feel have the greatest potential to become successful books to be enjoyed by readers around the state and around the country too. The winner will be announced at the end of May with ceremony to celebrate literature and our talented young Western Australian writers. Then the real work of polishing the manuscripts will begin, with books by the winners and shortlisters to be published and promoted in subsequent years.
This Award is a huge commitment to the next generation of writers by Fremantle Press. And it’s a commitment that is leading to the publication of amazing new stories by Western Australian writers.
Already, the impact of the Award is being felt. By the end of this year, 15 Fogarty alumni books will have been published. I’ve read them all and I have been entertained and inspired, learnt new things and recognised myself within the pages.
Without doubt, our stories matter. I believe that we need to see ourselves in books that we read, and that it is essential for us to nurture our local storytellers – the people who understand and can articulate our culture and lived experiences.
Fogarty Award winners have gone on to be recognised in other awards around Australia. Some prizes they have garnered include the Age/Sydney Morning Herald’s Best Young Australian Novelist, the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction, the WA Premier’s Book Award and the Dorothy Hewett Award. This year alone, one Fogarty alumni has been chosen as a Notable Book by the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book Award, and another has been shortlisted the Australian Fiction Prize.
This is exciting recognition of Western Australian talent. And it’s one of the reasons why the Fogarty Foundation has not only renewed its sponsorship for another three rounds but increased it threefold.
As Fremantle Press heads into its fifth decade, I invite you to think of all the stories and storytellers you’ve been introduced to thanks to their ongoing efforts, and consider joining me in supporting the Press in a meaningful way by becoming a Champion of Literature.