The Writing Life

Information, inspiration and insights into the writing life

2018 Deborah Cass Prize Shortlist Announced

Migrant Writing Growing Strong

Jonathan Green to present 2018 Deborah Cass Prize

The fourth annual Deborah Cass Prize for Writing, which goes to unpublished migrant writers, will be presented by literary editor and journalist Jonathan Green, on Wednesday 5 December.

The Prize received 91 entries from around Australia in 2018. The judges Christos Tsiolkas, Nyadol Nyuon and Tony Ayres will choose the winner from a shortlist of nine entries:

Genre hard to pin down

A photo of Sarah Madden lying on a squiggled hot pink couch on a mosaic floor. Sarah is wearing a black dress and has a bowler hat partial;ly covering her face

Ahead of the launch of her novella ‘Blue in the Red House’, Sarah Madden explores how genre labels can be hard to pin down – in life and in writing.

The Fear

A photograph of Jessica Obersby. Jessica has short red hair and has a parrot sitting on her shoulder

Things I fear:

Being buried alive

The awful, breathless struggle of drowning

Losing the ones I love

Being late

That I will lose my job

That the planet will die due to climate change

That I am unlovable

That my anxiety will win

The Inner Gippsland Write-ability Goes Regional and Online Writing Group recently finished its eight-month run under the program. Write-ability Project Assistant Alex Fairhill joined the group in Moe to celebrate the participants’ work, and hear about plans for the group to continue.