The shortlist has been announced for the City of Fremantle T.A.G. Hungerford Award, Western Australia’s longest running manuscript award.

Emerging WA writers, Yuot Alaak, Zoe Deleuil, Alan Fyfe, Holden Sheppard, Julie Sprigg and Trish Versteegenhave are all in the running for $12,000 in prize money from the City of Fremantle and a publishing contract with Fremantle Press. The award is given biennially to a full-length manuscript of fiction or narrative non-fiction by a Western Australian author previously unpublished in book form.

Publisher Georgia Richter said this year’s award had attracted more manuscripts than she’d encountered in the ten years since she became a Hungerford judge.

‘What stood out for me this year was the range and depth of stories. The entries were diverse, and of a very high standard, and I am certainly contemplating that more than one shortlisted manuscript will be considered for publication,’ said Richter.

The City of Fremantle T.A.G. Hungerford Award has helped foster the careers of other successful Australian authors such as Gail Jones, Simone Lazaroo, Natasha Lester, Alice Nelson, Kim Scott and Brenda Walker. 2016 Winner Jay Martin has published her book Vodka and Apple Juice about her travels as a diplomat’s wife. Check out our exlusive Behind the Book extract written by Jay for this month’s issue of gr!

THE 2018 SHORTLIST:

Father of the Lost Boys – Yuot Alaak

She Came to Stay – Zoe Deleuil

Floaters – Alan Fyfe

Invisible Boys – Holden Sheppard

Chewing Porridge: fixing up and breaking down in Ethiopia – Julie Sprigg

The Seventh Sister – Trish Versteegen

The winner will be announced on Thursday 15 November 2018 at Fremantle Arts Centre as part of the Fremantle Press Great Big Book Reads series.