How the Readings Prize carves its own space in Australian literature
Veronica Sullivan reflects on the six shortlisted books for this year’s Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, and considers how this relatively new Prize fits within the literary prize landscape of Australia.
On the eve of the announcement of the winner of The Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, it seems fitting to cast an eye over the six books on this year’s shortlist and consider what impact winning this particular prize can have on a writer’s life. The $4000 prize money is a considerable sum, especially for an early-career writer who is unlikely to be able to make a living solely from their writing at this stage. But the recognition from such a literary institution like Readings, and the affirmation that a writer is producing work ‘of the highest literary merit’ so early in their career, are also an invaluable form of creative and professional support.
One of the most exciting aspects of this year’s Readings Prize shortlist is the high level of technical and thematic ambition on display, though the books could not be more different in their approach. The stories in Nic Low’s Arms Race deal with technological apocalypses. So often the literary apocalypse is a blank slate, a mass shutdown and wiping clean of humanity’s reliance and dependence on technology. In Low’s writing, technology’s ongoing presence allows apocalypses to be recorded, transmitted, documented; and in doing so he renders them all the more terrifying. Abigail Ulman’s sharply observant stories in Hot Little Hands document the lives, loves and missteps of young women and girls with a clarity that is both fierce and affectionate. Annah Faulkner’s Last Day in the Dynamite Factory is an absorbing novel that raises questions about the nature of masculinity and mid-life rediscovery. Eliza Henry-Jones’ In the Quiet evokes the hope that springs from grief, in the story of a mother watching over her family after her death. Ellen van Neerven’s collection Heat and Light evokes Australian landscapes and their mythic resonances, and ranges from family secrets to speculative environmental dystopia. And Stephanie Bishop’s novel The Other Side of the World is a beautifully written exploration of the meaning of home; a highly literary work that is also utterly compelling.
It would be hard to find six more stylistically and thematically diverse books, and yet the 2015 Readings Prize shortlist is consistent in the high quality of its writing. The balance of three short-story collections and three novels also speaks to the strength of the short form in Australia today. Two of the authors are descended from traditional peoples: Nic Low and Ellen van Neerven are of Māori and Indigenous Australian heritage respectively. The shortlist skews young, for the obvious reason that most young writers are at the beginning of their careers. Perhaps more surprisingly, it also skews female, with Nic Low the only male writer on the shortlist. This is less surprising when you consider that of the approximately 50 eligible books in contention for this year’s prize, almost twice as many were by female authors as were by male authors. These proportions align with the results of a recent Macquarie University survey of Australian authors, which found that women comprise 66% of literary fiction authors.
On the 2015 shortlist, two of the books are second works of fiction – Annah Faulkner’s Last Day in the Dynamite Factory and Stephanie Bishop’s The Other Side of the World. They are both accomplished, evocative, thoughtful novels about how we live now, and it’s heartening to see Faulkner and Bishop rewarded for their ambition and craft through their shortlisting. The Readings Prize is unusual among literary awards in that its definition of an early-career writer does not just apply to debut writers, but extends to second works of fiction also. (Indeed, inaugural winner Ceridwen Dovey won the 2014 Readings Prize for her second book, Only the Animals.) This eligibility criterion appears to recognise that publishing a second book can often be just as creatively and commercially challenging, if not more so, than publishing a first book. While the going is tough commercially for all early-career writers, debut writers often possess the thrill of the new, and readers will take risks on new voice and many critics take their relative inexperience into account. Second-time authors and their books have to fight: for shelf-space, for review coverage, for publicity, for the attention of readers, and for chances to win prizes. There are a number of literary prizes awarded to authors for first books, whether in unpublished manuscript form (the Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award; various state-based prizes for unpublished works; the David Unaipon Award) and for published debut works (the Dobbie Literary Award, Indie Book of the Year Debut Fiction Award); but the Readings Prize is one of the only awards specifically given to writers for their first or second book.
In only its second year of existence, the Readings Prize is already an important and unique feature in the Australian literary landscape. It is heartening for a bookstore to offer a significant financial reward (and the inevitable boost in sales that will follow the announcement of the winner) in recognition of the best of new Australian writing. Booksellers and bookstores wield the power to recommend and influence the individual and collective reading habits of the public; perhaps none more so than a community-wide institution like Readings. With great power comes great responsibility – how brilliant, then, that Readings are using this power to shine a light on works by first and second time writers, and to support writing that is original, exciting, challenging and diverse.
