Kylie Needham’s Girl in a Pink Dress has won the 2024 MUD Literary Prize, which was announced in the Adelaide this week.

Read our book review of this year’s winner, Girl in the Pink Dress

MUD Literary Club’s charter is to support Australian literary talent by financially contributing to two of the great literary festivals dedicated to presenting these authors, being Adelaide Writers Week and the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Bali and through the annual MUD Literary Prize!

Since 2018, MUD has sponsored the MUD Literary Prize (MLP), recognising the best first literary novel by an Australian author with a cash prize and special presentation ceremony as part of Adelaide Writers’ Week. It now stands as one of the most important literary awards for new writers in the country. The philosophy behind the prize is an acknowledgement that while literary fiction plays a vital role in the cultural life of Australia, and internationally, it rarely offers writers a living wage. The prize acknowledges that most writers need funds to make it possible to write. The prize is one that the writer may spend as they see fit – to live, to travel, to explore and be inspired by new ideas.

Visit the MUD Literary Club Inc’s website

ABOUT THE BOOK

Is it possible for one relationship to survive two ambitious artists?

Far away from the glittering lights and famous personalities of the Sydney art world she once knew, Frances now lives a quiet life in a remote mountain town, pursuing her art. When an invitation arrives from a former lover to attend his painting exhibition at a celebrated gallery, Frances is plunged back into the past, when a single act changed the course of her life.

Told across two time periods, Girl in a Pink Dress is a sharp-eyed and compelling story about love and art, about sacrifice and ambition, and the often damaging relationship between artist and muse.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kylie Needham is an Australian award-winning screenwriter. She holds a Bachelor of Arts/Communications (Theatre/Media) from Charles Sturt University and both a Master of Arts (English Literature) and a Master of Creative Writing from Macquarie University.

Kylie has won two AWGIE (Australian Writers’ Guild) Awards for television scriptwriting.

Her work has been published in the Better Read Than Dead Writing Anthology 2019, The Quarry Journal and the exhibition catalogue 2014 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Dark Heart.

She lives in the Southern Highlands of NSW. Girl in the Pink Dress is her first novel.