Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer

"The Curse" 

Bronte Coates

Judges' comments: 

This tightly calibrated novel explores with pathos and humour the challenges of one couple’s conception journey. Cleverly told with sharp dialogue and absorbing characterisation, "The Curse" considers the myths, the reality and the absurdities of trying to create a human being. 

"Easy Living"

Mindy Gill

Judges' comments: 

Set in Australia, Vietnam and India against a literary landscape, this evocative novel is a delicately wrought exploration of identity and power within relationships; in this case between an older established writer and her young lover. With richly drawn settings and thoughtful narrative style, "Easy Living" asks where life ends and art begins.

"Commonplaces" (Winner)

Gillian Hagenus

Judges' comments: 

"Commonplaces" is a polished collection of fourteen ‘suburban noir’ short stories. They demonstrate an impressively diverse range of voices, perspectives and ideas, but with the common thread being the strangeness and subversiveness that can exist below ordinary suburban lives. 

"The Burning Season" 

Karen Lee

Judges' comments: 

In this fictional political drama, author Karen Lee has crafted a story that is tightly plotted and compellingly paced. With a complex protagonist who is straddling two cultures at home and shifting loyalties in her high-stress role as an advisor to a Federal Senator, "The Burning Season" keeps the reader firmly in its grip from beginning to end. 

"The Lyrebirds"

Dani Ringrose

Judges' comments: 

"The Lyrebirds" resonates with Australian gothic style, eco themes and a beautifully articulated sense of place. During one record hot summer in the Blue Mountains, as one family fractures and mysterious giant birds begin to appear, this ambitious storyline melds big ideas with a magic realist bent.