Category: Awards

Don’t Make a Fuss is in the running to win a Davitt Award for best non-fiction book by a female crime writer. Wendy Davis’s chilling account of how she survived a vicious attack by the soon-to-be Claremont Serial Killer is one of three titles shortlisted in her category with the winners to be announced on […]

Katherine Allum won the 2023 Fogarty Literary Award at the Edith Spiegeltent at ECU on Thursday 25 May. Allum receives a $20,000 cash prize from the Fogarty Foundation and a publishing contract with Fremantle Press for her winning manuscript The Skeleton House. American-born and Allum worked on her novel as part of an MA at […]

When I finished my creative writing degree, I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to write again. I had half a collection of short stories that I couldn’t bring myself to finish. Obsessed with the idea of a ‘real’ job, but working a part-time/shitty retail gig, I looked back at university as a fun but largely […]

Fremantle Press poet Caitlin Maling, who is on the cusp of releasing Spore or Seed (July 2023), has been awarded the inaugural creative McAuley Fellowship at the University of Tasmania worth $10,000. Caitlin will spend two weeks in Hobart writing and presenting a masterclass for students and an event for the general public. The fellowship […]

Building on its remarkable success to date, Fremantle Press and the Fogarty Foundation are thrilled to announce the extension of their partnership for another six years, securing three additional chances for young WA writers to win the award. The Fogarty Literary Award is a biennial award for Western Australian writers aged 18 to 35. The […]

Emily Paull’s novel, The Good Daughter, was highly commended in the 2021 Fogarty Literary Award and now this year’s novel The Dreamers is on the shortlist. Emily Paull is a Western Australian librarian, author and book reviewer. In 2019, her debut collection of short fiction, Well-Behaved Women, was published by Margaret River Press. In this […]

Jasper Cliff, is a gothic Australian crime novel which takes us to somewhere near Marble Bar where an ancient storehouse of bad memories ambushes the unaware. Josh was longlisted for the Fogarty Literary Award back in 2019. His novel Banjawarn was co-winner of the 2021 Dorothy Hewett Award and won the 2022 Ned Kelly Award […]

Fogarty Literary Award shortlister Prema Arasu says Australia is on the cusp of developing its own speculative fiction tradition. In their absorbing fantasy novel, The Anatomy of Witchcraft, they take colonial history, gender politics and impressive world-building into the boarding school. Read more from Prema below or, to find out more about how they made […]

In Nock Loose by Patrick Marlborough, a retired Olympic archer and former stuntwoman inspired by Magda Szubanski loses her granddaughter in a fire. This is the beginning point of a wild and lively novel centred around the town’s violent medieval festival, Agincourt. Patrick has been published in many national and international publications, and their novel, […]

Karleah Olson is a PhD candidate at Edith Cowan University, where she is studying Australian coastal gothic literature. It’s clear that her studies have influenced the creativity behind her manuscript A Wreck of Seabirds. The Fogarty Literary Award judges said her tightly written, atmospheric gothic YA novel evocatively captured the natural environment and explored the […]

Katherine Allum describes herself as one of those ‘weird homeschool kids’ who, growing up, was rarely seen without pen, paper and a library book. American-born, she moved frequently during childhood and finished her hybrid education in a small town in the desert. She completed her MA at City, University of London, where she wrote the […]

Fremantle Press and the Fogarty Foundation are delighted to announce the six outstanding authors whose manuscripts are in the running to receive a cash prize of $20,000 and a publishing contract with Fremantle Press. The Fogarty Literary Award is a biennial prize for an unpublished manuscript by a Western Australian author aged between 18 and […]

The Reading Pavilion ’Tis the judging season at Fremantle Press. It is also Djeran – the Noongar season when the long hot days give way to moody clouds and rain blowing in from the west. On Saturday and Sunday, as I enter the final stretch of the Fogarty Award judging campaign, I set up a […]

On a morning exploding with pigeons, I fall into a phone conversation with my old friend Kiera as I walk to work. ‘Can we talk about historical fiction?’ I ask. ‘I don’t write historical fiction,’ she says. ‘I write speculative biography.’ Isn’t that the way of writerly research, I think with a sigh: you push […]

The Fogarty Foundation and Fremantle Press are pleased to announce that the third round of one of Australia’s most significant literary prizes for young writers is almost over. Entries close at midnight on Tuesday 18 April 2023! The Fogarty Literary Award is a biennial prize awarded to an unpublished manuscript by a Western Australian author […]

The Last Light Horse by Dianne Wolfer and Backyard Beasties by Helen Milroy have been recognised as Notable Books in their respective categories in the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Book of the Year Awards. Backyard Beasties is a Notable book in the Early Childhood category. Both written and illustrated by Professor Helen Milroy – […]

During my thirty-five years as a published writer and thirty years as a teacher of creative writing at various universities, I’ve read several articles by creative writers, writing teachers or editors who say that starting to write a new story is the hardest part. But for me, beginning a story comes relatively easily. Almost always, […]

Two Fremantle Press books and five Fremantle Press writers are in the running to win the award for fan favourite! Stellarphant by James Foley and Mel and Shell by Julia Lawrinson both made the shortlist, alongside books by fellow Fremantle Press writers Cristy Burne, Sean E. Avery and HM Waugh. To find out more or […]

Stars in Their Eyes creators Aśka and Jessica Walton, and Stellarphant creator James Foley are over the moon about their latest news. All three celebrated their books making it onto the Children’s Book Council of Australia Notable Book list. Plus, all three are thrilled to announce American publications. Stellarphant will be published in the USA […]

Cristy Burne’s book, Off the Track, has been voted WA’s favourite book by the state’s young readers. Cristy beat out the Wimpy Kid, David Walliams, Tom Gates and Ahn Do to take the 2022 West Australian Young Readers Book Award for Younger Readers. Some 26,000 votes were cast by WA readers across four categories. Cristy […]

Beneath the trees and scenic lighting of the Fremantle Arts Centre, we awaited the announcement of the winner of the 2022 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award, while hearing from 18 Fremantle Press authors pitching their newly published books. Our witty MCs and authors, Helen Milroy and Holden Sheppard, opened the evening followed by an Acknowledgement […]

One of my favourite features of novels – and one that makes the art form different to many others – is their ability to take on the perspectives, words and thoughts of a fictional character. As readers, we feel the intimacy of being told a story and enjoy the benign voyeurism of having a window […]

Fremantle author Molly Schmidt has won the 2022 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award for her manuscript Salt River Road. She takes home a $15,000 cash prize and a publishing contract with Fremantle Press. Judged anonymously, the biennial prize is in its 32nd year and is presented to an emerging West Australian writer for their first […]

I live on a rural bush retreat in Western Australia’s Great Southern region, and have been writing stories obsessively since childhood. After completing a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing at Curtin University, my short fiction began to win or be placed in writing competitions, with a number being published in various journals and anthologies […]