Marian Eldridge Award 2005
The award commemorates writer Marian Eldridge, who died in 1997, and is made annually to an aspiring female writer to help develop promising talent.
This year, the judging panel comprised nominees from the National Library of Australia (Stephanie Green), the University of Canberra’s School of Creative Communications (Dr Jen Webb) and the Cultural Council of the ACT (Francesca Rendle-Short).
The Judges commented:
This year’s 60 or so applications gave us a snapshot of writing in Australia, an overview that we found very encouraging because it speaks to the lively interest in, and appreciation of, writing today. It was interesting that many of the applicants are either currently enrolled in university writing courses, or have recently completed formal training in writing or related disciplines: a number of applicants sought support to attend writers workshops or writing courses. The applicants in the main seem to be time-poor, but rich in ideas and passion for writing. They are committed to pretty well every genre and style of writing possible: applications posed projects in poetry, writing for children, scripts, academic writing, novels, memoir and so on. .
The person we nominated to receive the award and the commended applicants all showed a sense of story, a sense of language, the capacity to produce work that even in draft form had a memorable quality, and also argued convincingly for how their application would benefit not just their career, but Australian writing more generally. These applicants appeared on all three short lists, and we needed very little discussion to rank them and come to our decision.
Three applicants were commended:
- Lucy Holt from Brunswick, Victoria
- Natalie Sprite from Lake Conjola, NSW
- M Vreugdenhil
And the winner of the 2005 Marian Eldridge Award is
- Caroline Lee from North Fitzroy, Victoria
The Award of $1,500 was presented to Caroline at a ceremony at the National Library of Australia on 3rd September 2005.
Further information
Marie Coleman
ph 041 4483067