Tales a couple of displaced teen writing letters to attach the misplaced to their family members and a lady who refuses to return to highschool after being teased for her eye-patch have gained the inaugural Spiers Prize.
The youngsters’s literature prize, named after Australian main faculty instructor and philanthropist Gail Spiers, was this yr awarded to 2 unpublished manuscripts because of the variety of submissions – one for center main readers and the opposite a piece of younger grownup fiction – every awarded the $5000 prize.
Winner of the younger grownup fiction award The Woman, The Calico and The Soldier by Zahina Maghrabi is the story of Iqra who has been displaced from her house in Casmir and is sure to the promise she made to her grandmother.
“It is an unimaginable honour to win the Spiers Prize, it nonetheless feels surreal in some methods to have my work recognised at this stage however I am so grateful and excited,” Maghrabi mentioned.
Rebeca Inexperienced’s story A Woman, a Boy, a Horse and a Zorse, about self-conscious 12-year-old Roo, whose life modifications when needs begin to come true, gained the center grade fiction award.
“I am so grateful to Gail Spiers and UWA Publishing for offering this chance and excited that Zorses could have a second within the highlight,” Inexperienced mentioned.
The judges for this yr’s award have been Kate Pickard, publishing supervisor of UWA Publishing; Danielle Binks, literary agent, and center grade and younger grownup writer; Sally Murphy OAM, kids’s writer, poet and tutorial; and Gail Spiers.
The judges mentioned The Woman, The Calico and The Soldier was an exhilarating and pacey learn, from an eclectic new voice with a lot coronary heart and soul on the web page.
“A speculative-fiction story that feels so up to date and related at present; a story of battle, displacement, and resilience – targeted on a household torn aside by a international occupation, and a younger girl on the centre of a lot change and upheaval inside her personal nation, and life,” the judges mentioned.
A Woman, a Boy, a Horse and a Zorse was described by the judges as a delicate and necessary story that includes fantastic discussions round incapacity and bullying.
“The themes of equity, fairness, group and environmental accountability are folded in when a zorse trots onto the web page – to embody a wider dialogue and embrace of individuality within the face of hardship,” they mentioned.
From subsequent yr onwards, the Spiers Prize will alternate classes yearly between center grade (2026) and younger grownup (2027). Entries for 2026 open in Might subsequent yr, for extra info click here.
Picture prime: Kate Pickard, Zahina Maghrabi, Rebeca Inexperienced and Gail Spiers. Credit score: Ezra Alcantra
