Ceridwen Dovey's short story collection Only the Animals won the inaugural $4,000 (US$3,520) Readings New Australian Writing Award, which was established by the Melbourne indie bookstore chain Readings to support authors of a debut or second book of literary fiction and to recognize "exciting and exceptional new contributions to local literature."
The Award "aims to increase the promotion and commercial success of books by Australian authors, earning them greater recognition from the wider community," according to Readings.
The judges described the winning title as "a rare beast--a work of fiction that is not only richly imaginative, but also intelligent, ambitious and universal in theme. Ceridwen Dovey has created a book that wears its literary antecedents--Kafka, Colette, Woolf, Coetzee--lightly, but with each story she proves that Only the Animals belongs in this sort of company."
The Readings New Australian Writing Award shortlist also included After Darkness by Christine Piper, An Elegant Young Man by Luke Carman, Foreign Soil by Maxine Beneba Clarke, The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane and The Tribe by Michael Mohammed Ahmad.
Martin Shaw, books division manager at Readings, wrote in the Guardian that the genesis of the award came from a concern that "some writers in their early careers deserved some special recognition for exciting and exceptional work."
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