Novelist wins prize for 'empowering women'
Story from The Australian.

WRITER Rhyll McMaster last night won the inaugural Barbara Jefferis Award for the best novel by an Australian author that empowers the status of women in society.
McMaster, 60, was awarded the $35,000 prize for her novel Feather Man, which explores the affect of childhood sexual abuse on adult life. The NSW-based novelist is also an accomplished poet, and weaves a number of poems through Feather Man.

Other authors shortlisted for the award were Michelle de Kretser for The Lost Dog, Karen Foxlee for The Anatomy of Wings and Geraldine Wooller for The Seamstress.
Mireille Juchau (Burning In) and Elizabeth Stead (The Gospel of Gods and Crocodiles) were highly commended.

Jeremy Fisher, executive director of the Australian Society of Authors, said there were 53 entrants for the inaugural award, which will be presented on an annual basis. "The standard was very high, which I think reflects the healthy state of Australian literature," he said.
Novelist Barbara Jefferis was a founding member of the Australian Society of Authors and its first female president. The $35,000 prize is paid from the Barbara Jefferis Literary Fund, established by a bequest from Jefferis's husband, ABC film critic John Hinde.