The Dorothy Hewett Award – short list for an unpublished manuscript
UWA Publishing
UWA Publishing is thrilled to be announcing the shortlist for the 2022 Dorothy Hewett Award for an Unpublished Manuscript! The shortlist is as follows:
‘The Sleeping’ by Melissa Jones Murphy
‘Eta Draconis’ by Brendan Ritchie
‘How to Order Eggs Sunny Side Up’ by Lisa Collyer
‘Like a Small City’ by Carla de Goede
‘Nameless’ by Amanda Jane Creely
‘Greater City Shadows’ by Laurie Steed
To read the judges comments, head to our website: https://bit.ly/3xVktxz
The judging panel for the 2022 Award was Tony Hughes-d’Aeth, Leni Shilton, Astrid Edwards and Eleanor Hurt. They noted that the events that have shaped our experiences in the last two years have provided fertile material for Australian writers. More information on the judges can be found on the UWA Publishing website.
In 2021 the Award received over 350 entries and the Judges announced joint winners, with two young fiction writers sharing the award. Joshua Kemp’s Banjawarn (submitted as ‘Strangest Places’) was released in February 2022 and Kgshak Akec’s Hopeless Kingdom will be available mid-year. Previous winners include Karen Wyld’s Where the Fruit Falls and the inaugural winner, Extinctions by Josephine Wilson, which went on to win the Miles Franklin Literary Award.
UWA Publishing sends a warm thank you to the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund for its ongoing support for the Dorothy Hewett Award. The winner will be announced in June.
Annette Cameron Encouragement Award for Unpublished W.A. Poet (2021)
1st place ‘Impossible Jeans’ judged by Caitlin Maling as part of the Katharine Susannah Prichard Poetry and Prose Competitions 2021
Read judge’s report here
https://www.kspwriterscentre.com/2020-21-competition-winners
Impossible Jeans
After Denim Day
It creeps. Rifles her body−absolves blame,
nodding assent to her undoing. In jeans,
solidarity surrounds wounded fruit,
hounds’ bare teeth outraged by unjust decree.
A protest captures wind change in ancient
Piazza. A limpet undone, traction
lost to wayward nerve. They all wear jeans
disrupting parliament, dissidents bay
in protest of the judge’s verdict−that
it’s impossible to rape a woman
wearing jeans. It annihilates. Raided
fabric plunders breaching boundaries of
what little flesh. It insinuates. Frayed
breaths whisper−a culprit of poor choices.
Her body is sacked, Rome is in ruins
legitimising lawlessness. Undone.
She bears slander−bequeathed shame.
Cheeks turn raw and razed. He flees pardoned.
She seeks asylum−back against sullied walls
to lean. Uneven bird shit drips, stains stone
paths piercing soles of unsupportive flimsy
sandals. Judgemental leer points, penetrates
resolve. The bench marks her jeans. Undone.
Even in jeans.
The Ballina Region for Refugees Seeking Asylum Poetry Prize
Highly Commended for my poem ‘the stranger’
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Lisa Collyer Poet 