With prize money of $100,000, the ARA Historical Novel Prize is the richest, genre-based literary award in Australasia.
Prizes are awarded across two categories: Adult; Children & Young Adult (CYA). $50,000 is awarded to the Adult category winner, with an additional $5,000 awarded to each of the remaining two shortlisted authors. In the CYA category, the winner receives $30,000, while the two short-listers each receive $5,000.
The Historical Novel Society Australasia (HNSA) is part of the international Historical Novel Society. Funding of the prize is made possible through the generous patronage of the ARA Group, a leading facilities management and building services provider.
ADULT CATEGORY
WINNER
A QUOTE FROM TOM KENEALLY
"Prizes are wonderful. This one from ARA is wonderful to me. And it is far from a bad moment for the immensely gifted shortlist of my friend Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer -winner, and of Robyn Mundy. I remember reading with Indian Booker Prize winner Kirin Desai, who said that when the Booker people gave her the prize, her first thought was, "My God, I must be a novelist. They think so." We need these affirmations sometimes in our lives, and this one will keep me writing unto death and perhaps a little after. As sweet as it is, and as august as the judges might be, prizes are a sort of happy accident. When the accident befalls one, it is delightful. Young writers can’t say that. But this old one vulgarly does. Yippee!"
"And yet it is not yippee for the others on the list, and I agree with the proposition that there is a danger that a prize given to an 87 year-old writer like me runs the danger that dentists, continence napkin manufacturers and undertakers might be the chief beneficiaries."
"That must not happen. May I argue that writing is two-pronged matter: a business on one hand, the creator of transcendent manifestations from the ceaseless tide of story that runs through our species. Writing is on one hand an industry that employs 20,000 people in its service. Writers are primary producers growing risky crops. I have been saying this since I started in the early Sixties, but many Ministers for the Arts seem not to see it as a serious, in those terms; fail to see that the writer generates international standing, foreign income revenue and Australian jobs, and choose instead to see it as just that, a lefty hobby, an indulgence. As a gesture against such thinking, I would like to give, and it is very appropriate for me to do so. the six long-listed writers a small taken, a prizelet of $4000 each, as an addition to whatever other income keeps them afloat and writing. I hope they will accept this small gesture. I think my age and history warrant this! For most of us criminally failed to be born into families of means."
"So, a combined Yippee! goes to ARA and its eminent judges. And thanks to those who make writing a career."
SHORTLISTED
LONGLISTED
CHILDREN/YA CATEGORY
WINNER
A QUOTE FROM KATRINA NANNESTAD
"I am honoured and absolutely delighted to have won the ARA Historical Novel Prize for Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief. I am so very grateful to the ARA Group who sponsors this award, and especially to Edward Federman for his generous patronage. The prize is a is a huge encouragement and support to me as I continue to write historical fiction, and a wonderful endorsement of the genre’s importance to young readers."
"Historical fiction is exciting and plays a vital role in getting children hooked on books. It also encourages our young readers to explore history and the big issues that shape our world, which will better equip them to make good decisions for the future. Happiness, insight and intelligence wrapped in a book!"
"Thank you HNSA and ARA for this wonderful prize and for celebrating the genre and its writers!"
SHORTLISTED
LONGLISTED
