From Vogel to Hungerford: WA’s first-book award winners together in conversation

T.A.G. Hungerford Award winner Jacqueline Wright will be talking with Vogel Award winner Julienne van Loon about the struggle to become a published author at the State Library’s Love2Read Cafe on Saturday 27 October from 3.30 to 4.30pm.

Margaret Allen, State Librarian and CEO, commented that the State Library was delighted to be
hosting this event which brings recognised authors and their readers together to discuss their work.

“As an organisation which is committed to cultivating creative ideas, the State Library is always keen to promote the breadth of writing talent in Western Australia,” Ms Allen said.
Author talks like this one are a great way for the public to connect with their favourite writers and get an insight into the processes involved in turning an individual’s thoughts into a book which can be accessed by many.”

Ms van Loon, author of Road Story (Allen & Unwin), will be quizzing Ms Wright on her new book
Red Dirt Talking (Fremantle Press) to uncover her inspiration and the ethical dilemmas she faced in writing about Indigenous Australia.

The authors will compare their award winning experiences and share personal stories about making it in the book publishing industry.

Ms Wright says it was a struggle to get recognised because the Western Australian industry is a bit of a chicken and egg scenario.

“I’d been trying to get my novel published for a number of years and I was beginning to lose heart and courage,” she says.

“It’s really hard for a first-time Australian writer from the west coast to get published. The agents won’t touch you until you have something published and most publishers won’t speak to you unless it’s through an agent.”

Ms Wright says book awards are very important and notes Ms van Loon’s Vogel win and Kim Scott’s Miles Franklin Awards have helped shift east coast attitudes about west coast writers.

“Awards which support west coast and regional writers are important in the ongoing nurturing of our state’s enormous wealth of talent,” she says.

Ms van Loon agrees; “Unpublished manuscript awards are so important not just for supporting new and emerging writers, but for enriching contemporary culture with vibrant new voices, new stories, and new ways of telling stories,” she says.

Ms van Loon says winning the Vogel Award for Road Story in 2004 meant the world to her: “It really changed the way I thought about myself as a writer,” she says.

The Australian Vogel’s Literary award is presented to the author of an unpublished manuscript who is under the age of 35. This prestigious award has launched the careers of many notable Australian authors including Tim Winton, Kate Grenville, Gillian Mears, Brian Castro, Mandy Sayer and Andrew McGahan.

The T.A.G. Hungerford Award is presented biennially by writingWA to a Western Australian writer who has not previously been published in book form. Winners receive a cash prize as well as publication of the winning manuscript with Fremantle Press. Past winners include authors Brenda Walker, Gail Jones and Alice Nelson. Jacqueline Wright won the T.A.G. Hungerford in 2010 for her fiction manuscript for Red Dirt Talking.

Red Dirt Talking is set in a remote north-western community, where an eight-year-old girl, Kuj, goes missing in the midst of a bitter custody battle. It’s build-up time, just before the big wet, when people go off the rails and Annie, an anthropology graduate fresh from the city, is drawn into the mystery surrounding Kuj’s disappearance.

ENDS

For further information or images, please contact Doug George, Manager Public Programs. Tel.
(08) 9427 3150 email: doug.george@slwa.wa.gov.au

Notes for Editors

• The State Library of Western Australia is located in the heart of the Perth Cultural Centre in Northbridge. It preserves and provides access to Western Australia’s published heritage and original historical records. The State Library also provides online and eresources, many of which are accessible from home using a State Library or public library membership card. To see what else the State Library has to offer visit the State Library’s web pages at http://slwa.wa.gov.au/
  
  
• The Love2Read Café is open again by popular demand in the Perth Cultural Centre between the State Library and Western Australia Museum. From October 6 to December 9, relax into reading books, magazines or newspapers available to browse at the café. Discover the best of Western Australian writing at the varied program of events - there's something to appeal to every reader, including families. Copies of the books discussed will be available for purchase at the State Library Shop.