A word poet and memoirist from Newcastle won the coveted non-fiction prize on Wednesday night at the awards ceremony for the Victorian Premiers’ Literary Awards. Susan Hampton won the award for Anything Can Happen, a wry memoir that builds on her command of detail.
The VPLA judges gave the book a brilliant wrap but it has yet to be reviewed in the press. “I started as a performance poet. It seems like 100 years ago,” Hampton said, accepting the prize. “I come from a working class background. It’s the bedrock of my writing.”
Hampton was one of eight to receive prizes for their writing at the ceremony, with the big $100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature going to a First Nations children’s book author from Queensland.
The prizes, worth a total of $315,000, provide a rare opportunity for smaller publishing companies and lesser-known authors to shine. Their poignant stories make the awards ceremony the place for discovering talent and hearing some of the untold stories about the publishing industry.
Hampton was picked up by Puncher & Wattman in Sydney where she moved after leaving her home town, a suburb of Newcastle. Her previous books include poetry, monologues and performance pieces.
“People of Stockton seemed to invest in metaphor early,” she said. “All had nick names. They had noisy, dirty work. I was married at 19 and had a baby at 20. I’ve been writing since.”
Wanda Gibson, a Nukgal Wurra woman and first-time author, won the big prize for Three Dresses, a picture book story of her life on a mission.
Her son Wade accepted the prize for her. “Mum always told stories. They’re a big part of indigenous culture. That’s how we communicate. It ensures that the right information is passed onto our children.”
The People’s Choice award and the inaugural John Clarke Award for Humour Writing went to Robert Skinner for I’d Rather Not, a collection of autobiographical tales.
Skinner was wearing a safari suit for the ceremony. “It was my father’s,” he told AAR. “It’s the only one I have.” Clarke’s daughter Lorin presented the award in honour of her late father. “I see a brilliant mind at play,” she said of the book.
The mix of humour and pathos made the ceremony a special event but some fiction lovers were left wanting and mainstream publishers were not expecting to win.
“Often the small publishers do get a lot of awards,” said Lisa Riley, children’s publisher at Penguin. Three of their titles were listed.
Not one novel won an award, with the fiction prize going to Fiona McFarlane for Highway 13, a collection of short stories connected to a serial killer based on Ivan Milat.
The stories are intimate character-based accounts of the way murders can touch lives but fail to create the kind of suspense of a full-length work.
The Victorian prize is the largest in the country and some of the most memorable winners are Behrouz Boochani who wrote from a refugee camp and Veronica Gorrie’s close account of her tough time as a cop.
Images: Non-fiction winner Susan Hampton embraced by her wife Charlotte Clutterbuck at the awards ceremony – photo by Rhonda Dredge | The winners from back from left: Chris Ames, Unpublished Manuscript; Emma Lord, Writing for Young Adults; Amy McQuire, Indigenous Writing and Nathan Mayne, Drama. Front from left: Susan Hampton, Non-fiction; Minister for Creative Industries, Colin Brooks; Robert Skinner, People’s Choice and John Clark Prize for Humour Writing; Jeanine Leane, Poetry and Wade Gibson, son of Wanda Gibson, Victorian Prize for Literature – photo by Rhonda Dredge