the 2020 rachel funari prize for fiction: the shortlist
The Lip team is pleased to announce the shortlist of the 2020 Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction.
Plant Life – Tanya Vavilova
Arrow – Mia-Francesca McAuslan
Baby Season – Vicky Daddo
Touch Starve – Maude Davey
Swampy – Emily White
Earth House – Hollen Singleton
here/after – Laura McCluskey
And All Our Yesterdays – Elizabeth Flux
Hazard Lights – Zoë Bradley
Watching – Zowie Douglas-Kinghorn
The Future. Shared. Solo. – Kerrin O’Sullivan
On the Lips of Fish – Alison Turnbull
A huge thanks to everyone who sent us their stories this year. We extend our congratulations to all shortlisted entrants, and look forward to announcing the winners on Tuesday 23rd June, 2020 as part of the Emerging Writers’ Festival’s ‘Amazing Babes’ event.
For more information about the event, which will be hosted online via Zoom, please click here.
The 2020 Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction is judged by Lip’s editors as well as our panel of esteemed judges.
Rae White is a non-binary transgender poet, writer and zinester. Their poetry collection Milk Teeth (University of Queensland Press) won 2017 Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize and was shortlisted for 2019 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Poetry. Rae’s short story ‘The Body Remembers’ won Second Prize in 2019 Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction. Their poem ‘what even r u?’ placed second in 2017 Judith Wright Poetry Prize. Their poetry has been published in Australian Poetry Journal, Cordite Poetry Review, Meanjin Quarterly, Overland, Rabbit and others. Rae is the editor of #EnbyLife, a journal for non-binary and gender diverse creatives.
Jennifer Down is the author of Our Magic Hour (2016) and Pulse Points (2017), both available via Text Publishing. She was named a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist consecutively in 2017 and 2018. She is currently at work on a new novel.
Eleni Hale’s debut, Stone Girl, was published through Penguin Random House (May, 2018). It has received accolades including winner Readings Book Prize YA, shortlisting for the NSW Premier’s Ethel Turner Prize and longlisted for the Davitt Crime Awards. It tells the story of one girl’s journey through institutional care. Eleni was previously a reporter at the Herald Sun, a communications strategist and has written for many print and online news publications. Her short story Fig was published as part of the ABC’s ‘In their Branches’ project and she has received three Varuna awards. She lives in Melbourne and is currently working on her second book.
The judges of the 2020 Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction: (L-R) Rae White, Jennifer Down and Eleni Hale
This year’s prize is proudly supported by Affirm Press, Pan Macmillan Australia, Fremantle Press, Kill Your Darlings, Scribe Publications, Writers Victoria, Writing NSW and the Emerging Writers’ Festival.
The sponsors and supporters of the 2020 Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction (L-R: Lip, Scribe Publications, Pan Macmillan Australia, Writing NSW, Emerging Writers’ Festival, Writers Victoria, Kill Your Darlings, Fremantle Press, Affirm Press)
Background Information
This year marks the Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction’s eighth year. Writers were invited to submit previously unpublished and unperformed fiction up to 2000 words that engaged with the theme ‘future’. The competition was open to all women and non-binary writers.
This prize is held in honour of Lip’s late founding editor, Rachel Funari, in recognition of her contribution to the arts.
