Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer

2022 Shortlist

Congratulations to the finalists!

Photo of A E Macleod. They are seated with arms crossed over, wearing a black top, and in front of a purple flowered background

'Do you like the artist Georgia O'Keeffe?' by A E Macleod

Judges' comments

Sharply rendered, intimate, and offbeat, A E Macleod's short stories speak to the complex entanglements of everyday life, blurring the boundaries between the real and surreal. This original collection explores very real human emotions: love, hate, mourning, beauty. The author’s voice is assured and the texture of the narratives is fresh and unusual.

About the author

Andrea E Macleod’s story The Art Of Waving was the Pacific regional winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2020. They have been longlisted for the Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize 2021, ABR Elizabeth Jolley Prize and their work appears in New Australian Fiction 2022, Granta, Island magazine, the Newcastle Short Story anthologies and poetry in The Cormorant No 7, Meniscus 2022/1 and Mending Matters. They write on the unceded traditional lands of the Jagera and Turrbal peoples in Meanjin (Brisbane).

'The Interventions' by John Richards

Judges' comments

'The Interventions' is an ambitious and gothic-inspired collection of five stories, with one of novella length. Juxtaposing literary aesthetics with the overwhelmingly fantastic, 'The Interventions' pushes the limits of what short fiction can be. Using settings that range from Indonesia to medieval Italy and nineteenth-century Borneo, John Richards has crafted a meticulously researched and bold collection.

About the author

John Richards was educated in the UK and lived and worked in London and Singapore before settling in Brisbane. He was shortlisted for the Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Award in 2021. 'The Interventions' is his first work of fiction. He is currently working on a novel and additional short stories.

Emily Winter sits at a table in the sunshine. She is smiling, wearing a grey turtleneck and glasses.

'Sunshowers' by Emily Winter

Judges' comments

 'Sunshowers' is a moving young adult novel about family, friendship, and speaking one's own mind. Emily Winter explores major themes such as climate change in a confident and engaging way. The dialogue and characterisation shone in this novel as Winter taps into the hope and anxiety of the world we live in now.

About the author

Emily Winter was raised on stories in suburban Brisbane. She enjoys nothing more than boiling up fiction, blending the flavours of language on the page in an effort to capture and preserve something true. She currently studies at the University of Queensland, combining her passions for creative writing, music and history.

Yen-Rong Wong in a black and white photo. She is seated with her hands folded, smiling, with glasses and her hair long.

'Things Left Unsaid' by Yen-Rong Wong

Judges' comments

In this candid and dynamic collection of essays, Yen-Rong Wong interrogates race, sex, familial expectation and identity through memoir and cultural criticism. The author powerfully engages the reader in a discussion about what it’s like to be at the intersection of her identity.

About the author

Yen-Rong is an arts critic and writer based in Meanjin (Brisbane), on unceded Jaggera and Turrbal land. She won the Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Award in 2020, and in 2019, she was shortlisted for the Deakin University Non-Fiction Prize. She has been a Wheeler Centre Hot Desk fellow and writer-in-residence at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre, and her work has appeared in many print and online publications, including The Guardian, Meanjin, and Griffith Review. She is currently working on a number of creative projects, including a satirical novel, a play, and a collection of essays

The Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer is supported by Jenny Summerson through the Queensland Library Foundation.