T.A.G. Hungerford Award
Submissions to the TAG Hungerford Award 2008 are NOW CLOSED.
Presented in a partnership between Fremantle Press, New Edition Bookshop, The West Australian Newspaper and writingWA, the T.A.G. Hungerford Award is a biennial award given for an unpublished work of fiction by a West Australian author who has not previously been published in book form.
First established in 1988 by Fremantle Press, the Award honors West Australian author TAG Hungerford and his outstanding contribution to literature over a period of some sixty years.
The Award has been a major catalyst for stimulating growth in the WA literary sector, uncovering and nurturing new writing in WA and bringing that talent to public attention.
T.A.G. Hungerford Award winners to date are:
- 1990 - Brenda Walker; Crush
- 1991 - Gail Jones; The House of Breathing
- 1993 - Simone Lazaroo; The World Waiting to be Made
- 1995 - Bruce Russell; Jacob's Air
- 2000 - Christopher Murray; A Whispering Fish
- 2002 - Nathan Hobby; The Fur
- 2004 - Donna Mazza; The Albanian
- 2006 - Alice Nelson; The Last Sky
- 2008 - winner to be announced February 09
The Last Sky, Alice Nelson 2006 TAG Hungerford Award winner, published Fremantle Press 2008
Adrift in a failing marriage, Maya Wise is alone in a strange world far from home. Intrigued by an elderly Chinese man carrying a caged nightingale, she begins to follow him through the streets and alleys of Hong Kong. Drawn to Ken Tiger and his painful tale of lost love in wartime Shanghai, Maya begins to piece together other stories, other histories from the world around her, and so comes to imagine a different future for herself. The Last Sky is also a moving meditation on exile, memory and the ways in which we reconcile ourselves with loss.