Prize-Rama (And huge announcements!)

The giveaway is TWO copies of Elfy Scott's debut, 'The One Thing We've Never Spoken About'

Happy Wednesday, friends! I’ve got a few things to share with you right here right now before we launch into the special edition parts about prizes, but trust me, they’re real good.

Announcement One: Eggy on the big screen!

Yesterday Screen Australia announced that they’ve given significant development funding to Mia Wasikowska to write and direct the film adaptation of Eggshell Skull. I’ve know about this for a few months, am incredibly excited, and am relieved to finally be able to talk about it without ‘letting the cat out of the bag’, so to speak. Things can get development funding and not ever get shot, so I’m trying hard to temper my enthusiasm, but basically I’ve met Mia and I trust her. It’s bittersweet to think about how the issues that book raised back in 2018 haven’t really gone anywhere. Injustice in Australia’s legal system isn’t ‘old news’. In fact, every year some new terrible story comes out about how the status quo is refusing to budge. If this book being turned into a movie can bring a little more feminist jurisprudence to thousands more people, then I’ll be stoked. Mia has been saying in interviews for a while now that she’s been wanting to make this career shift, and I’m thrilled Eggy might be her directorial debut.

Announcement Two: Workshops, baby!

I’m running a full weekend of writing workshops on Saturday 1 July and Sunday 2 July here in Sydney. I’ll lay out all the information clearly very soon but in short: each day has three whole full-length workshops, and they’re designed for people with a specific writing project they want to start (or continue) work on. You’ll be able to book in for the two days separately because Saturday is for non-fiction and Sunday is for fiction, but I’ve also designed the content so it’s great to come to both for the full weekend if you’re a big nerd like me. I’m running them in one of Ace Hotel’s gorgeous event spaces, and they’ve created a discount code for me to pass on to you to book one of their rooms if you want to make a trip or staycation out of it! Read up on the testimonials from my past workshops on my Instagram saved stories here.

Teaching at the Bay of Fires on an Aweventurer trip

I’m sending out emails tonight and tomorrow giving all my Bay of Fires return customers an early-bird chance at registrations, but if you’re desperate to secure a spot, just reply to this email, because you are a beautiful paying subscriber. :) Turkey sold out in less that 14 days, Bay of Fires took about a week to sell out, and I’m capping these Sydney workshop spots at 20 places, so put the first weekend in July aside!

Announcement Three: Buy The Monthly coming out in April

This is cryptic, but I’ve done a gigantic 8,000-word piece of investigative journalism and it’s coming out at the end of next week. I’m really proud of it and it tells one specific story to draw attention to a bigger problem in media, fashion, and garment manufacturing in Australia. The next Style special edition will be out on Wednesday 5 April and my Editor’s Letter will include some more personal reflections on the process of putting that piece together over many months. Just trust me: it’s big.

Relevant news for you: The SWF Odell event

Last week’s edition discussed Jenny Odell’s new book a lot, and check it out, she’s speaking at the Sydney Writer’s Festival, and for free! I’ve just registered to attend the session, ‘Resisting the Attention Economy’ on Wednesday 24 May, and you should too before it sells out.

Okay, phew. As you can see, huge cogs turning over here. But now to the juicy conversations about literary prizes you really opened this email to see. Read on for:

• Astrid Edwards’ big essay about The Stella Prize (which she judged this year) and the Miles Franklin Award, complete with fascinating comparison tables of shortlisting overlaps (and lack thereof) and Astrid’s proposal for the best-ever exemplary award parameters and guidelines

• A little reply from Bri (this is becoming a regular thing, lol)

• Anonymised comments from recent, real-life prize judges, as told to Bri, which make for especially interesting reading after Astrid’s points

• Bri answers this month’s reader question (add yours here!) which is small yet mammoth:

How’s your novel going?

I dunno, dude, how’s YOUR novel going!?

Kidding. Let’s go.