2016 ACT Writing and Publishing Award Winners

Featured image: Tahi Atea Kentwell, photographed by Zhenshi van der Klooster

The 2016 ACT Writing and Publishing Award winners were announced at the end-of-year celebrations, held on 15 December in Canberra Contemporary Art Space at Gorman Arts Centre, Braddon.

We were thrilled to have the ACT Minister for the Arts and Community Events, Gordon Ramsay, announce the winners of the 2016 ACT Book of the Year and People’s Choice Award. Further information on the Book of the Year winners can be found here.

The ACT Writers Centre annual awards include the Marjorie Graber-McInnis Short Story Award, the June Shenfield Poetry Award, the ACT Writing and Publishing Awards and the Anne Edgeworth Fellowship for Young Writers. The winners and highly commended are listed below.

You can find video coverage of the event at Riot ACT.

Fiction

Winner: Edited by Tansy Rayner Roberts & Tehani Wessely, Cranky Ladies of History

Highly Commended: L.J.M. Owen, Olmec Obituary
Highly Commended: Shane W. Smith, Undad

Nonfiction

Winner: Jennifer Horsfield, Building a City: CS Daley and the Story of Canberra

Highly Commended: P.S. Cottier, Paths into Inner Canberra
Highly Commended: Penny Olsen, Australian Predators of the Sky
Highly Commended: James Sanderson, Weekend Warriors: A Funny Side

Children’s

Winner: Jackie French, illustrated by Peter Bray, Horace the Baker’s Horse

Highly Commended: Stephanie Owen Reeder, Lennie the Legend: Solo to Sydney by Pony
Highly Commended: Tania McCartney, illustrated by Christina Booth, This is Captain Cook

Poetry

Winner: Kathy Kituai, Deep in the Valley of Tea Bowls

Highly Commended: Janette Pieloor, Ripples Under the Skin

The Marjorie Graber-McInnis Short Story Award

Winner: Ron Schroer, ‘Sandman’

Second Place: Greg Burgess, ‘Roadwork Ahead’

Highly Commneded: Isabelo Gacusan, ‘Fight or Flight’
Highly Commended: Erin Prothero, ‘The Abject Redemption of Athalie Roche’

The June Shenfield Poetry Award

Winner: Hessom Razavi, ‘Ghost’

Second Place: Daniel Hutley, ‘Tumbleweed’
Second Place: Saaro Umar, ‘White Lilac (For Deb)’

Highly Commended: Samuel Guthrie, ‘brontebright’
Highly Commended: Nadia Niaz, ‘My Grandmother’s Language’
Highly Commended: Stephen Smithyman, ‘The Lumber Room’

The Anne Edgeworth Fellowship for Young Writers

Winner: Rosanna Stevens

Shortlisted:
Shu-Ling Chua
Grace Finlayson
Leearni Hamilton

2016 Judges 

Fiction:
Karen Viggers & Craig Cormick

Nonfiction: 
Biff Ward & Kristen Alexander

Poetry: 
Geoff Page & Andrew Galan

Children’s Book:
Tracey Hawkins & K.J. Taylor

The Marjorie Graber-McInnis Short Story Award:
Kaaron Warren

The June Shenfield Poetry Award:
Jenni Kemarre Martiniello, Ann Shenfield & Holly Zhangthe