Haddad’s debut novel Losing Face moves deftly between the perspectives of restless young man Joey, who is arrested for a violent crime, and his grandmother Elaine.
The judges said Haddad’s novel “rings with the sights and sounds of various locales in contemporary western Sydney” and brought new insights into sexual violence.
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“It was really important for me to contribute to the conversation and to snapshot characters and situations that reflected contemporary Australian society as accurately as I knew it. The novel was always in me, but it was particularly sparked by my doctoral research on the intersection of masculinities, shame and suburbia,” Haddad said.
The judges said Carmichael’s poetic second novel Marlo – a perfectly crafted story of love between two men set in conservative post-war Melbourne – “makes history immediate, every page pulsing with heart and sensuality”.
Carmichael said it felt “surreal” to win the prize. The beginnings of the novel emerged from Carmichael’s own move from regional Victoria to Melbourne.
“The 50s, in particular, was such a peculiar setting for Marlo’s characters, given how government-sanctioned discrimination filtered down to all levels of society. Despite being set in the past, what happened then still strongly resonates in today’s world,” Carmichael said.
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The Best Young Australian Novelists’ advice to writers looking to publish? Carmichael recommends writing what is meaningful to you; Gibson says to take your time; and Haddad encourages you to try your hand with smaller formats such as essays and short stories.
Jay Carmichael, Katerina Gibson and George Haddad will be in conversation at a free event at the Sydney Writers’ Festival at 3:30pm on Sunday, May 28.
This project is supported by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.
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