Announcing the 2016 Winner of the Richell Prize for Emerging Writers

The past two years have seen the awarding of the Richell Prize for Emerging Writers, in memory of Matt Richell, former CEO of Hachette Australia, who died in 2014. The winner of the prize wins $10,000 and a yearlong mentoring with Vanessa Radnidge. This year’s winner is Susie Greenhill, for her novel, The Clinking. After this year of mentoring, Hachette will have the first chance to option The Clinking for publication. The announcement was made on the 28th of September, 2016.

From The Guardian: “The Clinking explores extinction, grief and interconnection against the backdrop of a warming climate, through the eyes of a scientist watching ‘the world he loves and knows intimately disappearing’,

In its second year, The Richell Prize for Emerging Writers has already optioned a novel. The 2015 winner, Susie Abbott, will have her novel, Closing Down, published in July 2017.

These two results are proof that Australia has a viable and vibrant literary culture, which will hopefully exist into the future. Hachette’s prize and mentoring program to assist emerging writers, along with publishers such as Pantera Press that take on new writers and nurture them and their stories, to bring much needed new voices into the literary world, show that there is still a place for the writing and book industry in Australia.

Below is a link to the opening chapter of The Clinking:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/australia-books-blog/2016/sep/29/richell-prize-2016-read-susie-greenhills-opening-chapter-of-the-clinking?CMP=share_btn_fb

Congratulations, Susie Greenhill, and Susie Abbott, wishing you both the best with your novels.