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Tasmanian Literary Awards

University of Tasmania Prize

For the best new unpublished literary work by a Tasmanian writer.

Supported by the University of Tasmania.

Winner

The Sand by Cameron Hindrum

  Winner Tasmanian Literary Awards 2022 Badge

Judges’ comments:

With this award now open to poetry and scripts as well as fiction and non-fiction, we saw the full breadth of Tasmanian literary art. The panel was thrilled with the exceptional quality of the entries. Tasmania continues to produce outstanding, fearless writers that examine our place in the world and offer us insight into our own lives. We saw many works that expressed a deep connection to the land, often with a sense of urgency driven by climate change. While the island may be tucked away at the bottom of the globe, our writers frequently turn their gaze outward to look at our place on the world stage and the heritage we share with international cultures. There is also a fierce appetite for experiment among our best writers as they test the structures of their chosen forms, searching for new ways to express themselves. Above all, we saw a deep empathy for the people in our community and an ongoing fascination for the bonds that hold us all together.

Shortlist

Click on the book category tiles below to see the longlisted books or view the full list as a PDF.

Cameron Hindrum

Cameron Hindrum

Dr Cameron Hindrum has taught English for close to thirty years at a range of schools around Tasmania and in Queensland. He is an experienced conference and professional learning presenter, preparing and delivering workshops in every Australian capital city on topics such as creative writing, teaching controversial issues, World War One poetry, Teachers as Writers, and teaching Haiku. In addition to a long teaching career, he completed his Doctorate of Creative Arts (Writing) through the University of Wollongong in 2021, and is an Associate in the University of Tasmania School of Humanities. He has published a novel and two collections of poetry and had two plays professionally produced in Tasmania, with Mudlark Theatre and Blue Cow Theatre respectively. His poetry, short fiction and non-fiction have been published by Island, Famous Reporter, Forty South, Pendulum, Askew Poetry Journal and in the cross-cultural Australian-Indian publication Dancing the Light. The Sand is his second novel and he is currently planning his third, while completing his fourth play.

The Sand

The Sand is based loosely on a Tasmanian cold case, the as yet unsolved murder of an Italian backpacker on an east coast beach in broad daylight in October 1995. Events in the novel unfold over a period of approximately 7 days after the body of Maria Fabri is found on the local beach of a small Tasmanian town. Several characters offer their perspectives on the ramifications of this crime on their community, and the conceit of Curated Fiction is used to enact one of them, Sally Ringholt, as curator— the commissioner, collator and editor of the other accounts. Several stories emerge in the wake of an act of shocking violence: stories of acceptance, tolerance, grief, change and compassion. These are underscored by the dawning realisation that, for the people resident in this small coastal town, the world has inexplicably shifted on its axis: the familiar is no longer comfortable, and someone among them has a terrible secret.

Kathryn Lomer

Kathryn Lomer

Kathryn Lomer has published eight books across the genres of fiction, short fiction, young adult fiction, and poetry, all with University of Queensland Press, and has won awards across these genres. She has a new poetry collection, called After Life, coming out next year with Puncher and Wattman. Kathryn taught English as a Second Language for many years in Australia and in Japan. She currently works at MONA.

The Big Blue

Kathryn Lomer’s The Big Blue is a collection of sixteen short stories with diverse settings ranging across Tasmania, Greece, Japan, Israel; a theatre, a hospital, an orchard. A few of the stories reflect Kathryn’s interest and background in writing for young adults. Many stories were initially inspired by incidents or experiences from her own life, or the lives of people around her. The title story - The Big Blue - however, was one which unfolded like a waking dream, inspired initially by an image seen in the newspaper, or on the TV news, of the aftermath of a storm.

Zane Pinner

Zane Pinner

Zane Pinner is a writer and digital artist who works in film and television. The manuscript of his first novel was shortlisted for Dymock’s Young Australian Author of the Year award. Along with developing a feature film screenplay with Screen Tasmania and Goalpost Pictures, he has won multiple awards for short fiction, screenplays and song writing. He was the Post-production Editor on five animated TV series by Blue Rocket Productions and is currently working on an animated TV series for adults with Princess Bento. He lives in Hobart with his partner and their two rambunctious boys.

Last Saturday in Invermay

On a Saturday towards the end of summer, five teenagers from a working-class Tasmanian suburb trespass into an adult world of sex, drugs and sausage rolls. Stephanie dreams of buying a car and escaping her troubled life. Darcy wants to make his name as a prize fighter. While Maynard struggles with a blooming attraction to his best mate, Jake and his friends explore the dirty corners of Invermay looking for interesting places to get high. Brad, new in town, unknowingly steals drugs and money from an outlaw motorcycle club. Over the course of a single day on the suburban streets, their lives entangle with violently tragic consequences.