A huge week in Sydney, in conjunction with the Sydney Writers Festival. I didn’t appear at the festival, but I was lucky enough to attend two important award nights. I was short listed for the NSW Premier’s Award for Debut Fiction – quite the honour as these awards tilt strongly towards the literary – and later in the week, short listed for the ABIA Award for General Fiction.
I didn’t win either of them, but I’m still enormously chuffed to be considered worth of the short lists.
And the events themselves are such fun, provided you’re not sweating the outcomes too much. Publishing is a small world, so you get to meet/catch up with a lot of intriguing people.
And I love this photo: Allen & Unwin publisher Jane Palfreyman with four of her short-listed authors: myself, Bri Lee (Eggshell Skull), Clementine Ford (Boys Will Be Boys) and Gabbie Stroud (Teacher). Huge congrats to Bri, who won Biography of the Year.