Amy Espeseth has
been
announced as the winner of the CAL Scribe Fiction Prize for her
manuscript Trouble Telling the Weather, a novel-in-stories
told through the voices of five troubled characters.
As with previous winners Lesley Jørgensen and Maris Morton, Espeseth will be awarded a cash prize of $15 000 and a book contract with Scribe. This year's judges included Herald Sun Books Editor, Blanche Clark. ABA President Jon Page (of Pages & Pages Bookstore) and Scribe Associate Publisher Aviva Tuffield.
Clark said that Trouble Telling the Weather 'bring[s] to life the bleakness and beauty of Siren, Wisconsin, the setting for a poignant tale that compassionately, but unflinchingly, traverses the lives of five characters struggling with racial, economic and social disparity.’
Other shortlisted manuscripts for 2012 were Manly by Andrew Lindsay and The Reflection by Hugo Wicken.
Scribe received 175 submissions this year, from writers aged 35 to 85.
The CAL Scribe Fiction Prize was created in 2009 to balance out the Vogel and is awarded to the best unpublished manuscript by an Australian writer aged 35 and over.
