The ARA Historical Novel Prize gives Australian and New Zealand historical novelists the chance to be recognised in a class of their own, with the most significant individual prize purse for literature in Australasia. The Prize incorporates both an Adult category and a category for Children and Young Adult (CYA).
This year the two categories were both awarded to local Western Australian authors for their works demonstrating irresistible prose, unforgettable characters, meticulous research, and epic storytelling.
ADULT CATEGORY WINNER:
Bernice Barry's The Names of a Hare follows a woman who is condemned to a life of constant reinvention to outrun accusations of witchcraft for practising healing and herbal lore in C17th Cornwall. The novel is steeped in the language and folklore of Cornwall, and its landscape is beautifully and evocatively drawn with 'a quiet power that lingers in the mind'.
CHILDREN & YOUNG ADULT CATEGORY WINNER:
In Meg Caddy's A Flash in the Dust it's 1899 - a time when bush rangers patrol the roads, and girls who don't behave find themselves institutionalised. Grounded confidently in its research, A Flash in the Dust brings queer adolescents back in from the fringes of history, and is a 'powerful reminder to contemporary readers that everyone's lives deserve a place on the page.
