Winners announced

After six months, 271 entries and weeks of intense reading and debate, Griffith Review has finally announced the winners of its 2015 novella competition. 

Griffith Review, with the active support of CAL’s cultural fund, has been at the forefront of reviving novellas in Australia, publishing eleven novellas in Griffith Review 38: The Novella Project and Griffith 46: Forgotten Stories – The Novella Project II. 

In January 2015, Griffith Review put the call out for novellas for The Novella Project III competition. There were no thematic or geographic restraints – we were simply looking for the best work. 

By seeking novellas with a blind competition judged by publishing experts Brian Johns, Jacqueline Blanchard and Cate Kennedy, Griffith Review aimed to bring new writers to the attention of readers and publishers and to ensure that the very best new novellas are published and promoted. 

The competition broke several records for the publication: we had a record number of entrants with 271 and a record number of hits – 13,000 – on the competition webpage. Our three judges considered a mountain of entries as they whittled their totals down to a handful, each choice fiercely debated. 

The five winners will share in prize pool of $25,000 and be published in Griffith Review 50: Tall Tales Short – The Novella Project III to be published in November 2015. 

The winners, in no particular order, are: 

Catherine McKinnon, Will Martin
Nick Earls, Cargoes
Madeleine Watts, Afraid of Waking It
Helen Gildfind, Quarry
Tony Davis, The Flight.

Aviva Tuffield (Black Inc., the Stella Prize) will co-edit the edition with Julianne Schultz.