2024 Long and Short Lists
‘Edenglassie’ honoured with 2024 Roderick Literary Award
Melissa Lucashenko’s mesmerising colonial Queensland epic Edenglassie has taken out the Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award for 2024, along with the record $50,000 prize.
This year’s prize, organised by the James Cook University-based Foundation for Australian Literary Studies (FALS), had a record 235 entries but it was Lucashenko’s extraordinary novel on Queensland’s colonial past and a reimagined Australian future that emerged from a shortlist of exceptional quality.
A delighted Lucashenko accepted the award and the accompanying H.T. Priestley Memorial Medal at a ceremony at the JCU’s Bebegu Yumba Campus on Monday night, with the acclaimed First Nations writer revealing her links to the Indigenous people of North Queensland made her win even more special.
“I'm absolutely thrilled and honoured to receive the Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award,” she said.
“Though I hail from the south and my books are mostly set on Bundjalung Country, I’ve had a longstanding connection to Far North Queensland and Townsville in particular. My kinship family have roots in Palm Island, Yarrabah, Hopevale and elsewhere on the Cape.
“Edenglassie was strongly influenced by these bama mobs’ much more recent, and distinctly northern, experiences of colonisation. It’s therefore particularly gratifying to see my novel recognised in this award at JCU. Always was, always will be. Bugalbeh (thank you).”
The book’s title is taken from an early colonial name for the city now known as Meanjin or Brisbane, with the stories in Edenglassie working in curves and circles, tying together the mid nineteenth century and the present.
They are held together by strong characterisation, as is the case with the witty, wise and gutsy Granny Edie.
The Roderick Award judges praised Edenglassie for the qualities that have long characterised Lucashenko’s work: originality, energy, erudition, and a distinctive blend of humour and gravitas.
Lucashenko’s standout story finished ahead of fellow shortlisted entries Lola in the Mirror by Trent Dalton, Life As We Knew It: The Extraordinary Story of Australia’s Pandemic from Aisha Dow and Melissa Cunningham, Restless Dolly Maunder by Kate Grenville, Two Sparrowhawks in a Lonely Sky by Rebecca Lim, Amanda Lohrey’s The Conversion, A Brilliant Life by Rachelle Unreich and Alexis Wright’s Praiseworthy.
The Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award has the broadest scope of any national literary competition, recognising outstanding achievement in all forms of writing.
It helps to achieve its namesakes’ goals of developing the writing and reading of Australian literature, recognising books that will make a lasting contribution to our culture.
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Picture: Author Melissa Lucashenko accepting the H.T. Priestly Medal from JCU Vice Chancellor, Prof Simon Biggs. Image by Bethany Keats.
2024 Short List
Released on August 9, 2024, the shortlist narrows 235 entries down to just eight books. It features some of Australia’s most acclaimed and celebrated authors, such as Kate Grenville, Amanda Lohrey, Melissa Lucashenko, and Alexis Wright. Notably, two debut authors have also made the cut with their books, A Brilliant Life (by Rachelle Unreich) and Life As We Knew It (by Aisha Dow & Melissa Cunningham). While predominantly consisting of adult fiction, the list also includes a biography, a history, and Lim’s novel for younger readers.
Read the whole media release.
The shortlisted titles are:
A story of homelessness, violence and dysfunction seen through the eyes of a 17-year-old girl who has never lived any other way, although she firmly believes she will be a world-famous artist one day. Yes, it’s violent, it’s sentimental, and wallows in it – but go with the flow, you won’t regret it.
Why would anyone want to revisit the beginnings of the pandemic? Because this gripping, detailed, thoroughly-researched book illuminates the events, the decisions and the emotions of those days in Australia.
It’s hard to believe that in just two generations so much could have changed for Australian women but Grenville, in this fictionalised version of her grandmother’s life, makes it very clear. She transforms history into a gripping and emotional journey.
This delicately written and compelling young adult story traces the suffering of a village family during China’s Great Leap Forward. As they struggle to survive, their father attempts to make a place for them as immigrants during the time of the White Australia policy.
The title of this sparely-written, elegant novel ostensibly refers to trying to convert a church into a home after tragedy, but the story is as much about spiritual and life conversions as it is about a building. The novel follows the progress of Zoe’s life toward some sort of rebuilding after the betrayal and death of her husband.
The title is an early colonial name for Brisbane. There are two storylines: of Mulanyin and Nita, who watch as their lands are filled by white people, and Winona and Johnny, as they try to wrangle the feisty Mrs Eddie Blanket. In characteristically vivid prose, Lucashenko shows the ways that intimate relationships were, and continue to be, shaped by the violence of colonisation.
In these difficult days with anti-Semitism sweeping the Western world, this tale of survival of the Nazi Holocaust is timely. But it’s a story not just survival, but of retaining humanity, optimism and love in the face of the most inhumane and vicious acts.
An ebullient writing style hurtles the reader across more than 800 pages. Ostensibly an epic story of the eponymous town, Praiseworthy tackles climate change and the Northern Territory intervention in prose that is rambunctious, erudite, and simmering with rage.
2024 Long List
Fourteen books, including fiction, poetry and non-fiction, have been longlisted for the $50,000 Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award in 2024.
Released on the 9th July 2024, together, these fourteen books showcase the very best of current Australian writing and publishing from a field of over 230 entries. (Long list includes those listed below and the eight titles listed above in the short list.)
A coming-of-age story for young adults, this book focuses on Matthew, his parents, his friends and his search for meaning. When he and his mother move to a small fishing town, he discovers a whole new life that his father’s return makes even more complicated. Moving and heartfelt.
A rollercoaster ride of twists, turns and horrific surprises in this thriller. It’s the story of three foster children, that unravels their experiences as children and then as adults. It’s not for the faint-hearted, and nobody will expect the ending.
A strong collection with a wide variety of styles and concerns, with a consistent focus on social issues. If you want to sample the best of current Australian poetry, this book is for you.
This novel for younger readers explores the idea that we understand our lives in part by using stories from books, particularly in times of crisis and change. It shows that social convention can be not just constraining but fatal, even for adults.
This is a beautifully written contemplation: memoir, history, and analysis of the country’s relation to sport, including Australian Indigenous and non-Indigenous understandings of competition, play and belonging in life. Wide-ranging but always with controlled purpose, the book holds readers through a sometimes excruciating journey of shyness, experiences of racism and homophobia, committed othering, and losing and finding place.
Sally Young’s stunning research and lively story-telling reveal intriguing details of the workings and influence of the print media. Essential reading for anyone interested in politics and history.