Winners will be announced by age Publisher Patrick Elligett at Melbourne City Hall on May 8 as part of the opening night of this year's Melbourne Writers Festival, which will feature best-selling American writer Michael Cunningham. The hours i Day.
The fiction judges described Birch's novel about domestic violence as “a book that will live with you”; Bishop's as “incredibly atmospheric and well-made”; Hearst's debut as “a surprising success … funny, sad and revelatory”; Jose's “stunning” political thriller that shows “a writer above his craft”; Wood is “to show a keen understanding of the peculiarities and painful nuances of human life”; and Yu is “perfect, wryly funny, and very entertaining.”
Ellen van Neerven's memoir of sport and country was described as engaging and eloquent.Credit: Chris Hopkins
Caterson and Damousi called Fullagar's story nuanced and erudite, “breaking the conventional narratives that privilege the colonizers over the colonized”; Hayward's collection as essays in which “the most mundane household chores demanded of most of us [were] invested with a sense of wonder and occasional disgust”; and Frank Moorhouse's biography of Lamb which provides “a complex and compelling portrait of his subject's early years”.
They described McMullin's book as a “thoroughly researched and deeply empathetic micro-history”; van Neerven's memoir as a highly engaging and eloquent work “exploring the rich intersections between sport, sexuality, gender and identity”; and Unreich's story of her Holocaust survivor mother as “an exploration of resilience, faith, spirituality, family and relentless positivity and enduring hope.”
Last year, Robbie Arnott's Limberlost won the fiction award and the Kim Mahood award Wandering with Intention the non-fiction award.
the age is a partner of the Melbourne Writers Festival.
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