My short story Cat Money ended up coming second in the Wollongong Writers Festival Short Story Prize and has now been published on Mascara Literary Review. Huge thanks to the festival, prize coordinator Emma Darragh, and judges Roanna Gonsalves (author of The Permanent Resident) and Jo Langdon (Glass Life).
Well, that was unexpected. My short story Cat Money has been longlisted for the 2018 Wollongong Short Story Prize, run by the Wollongong Writers Festival.
I’ve been shortlisted for the 2018 Newcastle Short Story Award. My story Red Belly will be published in the award anthology later in the year.
If you want to know something funny, a few days before I found out I was a finalist, I filed a magazine story on art prizes and the role they play in the art world. The basic point was not to take them too seriously, but I’m still going to take Michael Zavros’ advice to NAVA members to heart:
Peer assessment is really valuable in my opinion. Prizes where the work is considered by a curator or guest judge for pre-selection before the final means that a) someone has actually seen it and b) thought it worthy or interesting.
So my sincerest thanks to the Hunter Writers Centre and judges Ryan O’Neill and Isabelle Li.
UPDATE: Red Belly ended up being Highly Commended, so my huge thanks too to Foghorn Brewhouse for my prize
