On the competition shortlisting front for 2011, here’s my first bit of news. I have been shortlisted for the Byron Bay Writer’s Festival/Varuna Litlink Unpublished manuscript award. As one of four finalists, I could be up for a trip to the Byron Bay Writers Festival in August, plus a two week residency at the Varuna House in Katoomba, with lots of manuscript and editorial assessment.
This was again for my novel “Youth Bytes”, the same work shortlisted for the Text Prize last year.
More details can be found on the Varuna website.
Yes, I will add that they managed to spell my name wrong, but I can overlook that 🙂
Naturally, I’m impressed with this result again, and the winner will be informed on June 3. I will post the result here then if I am allowed to — there is a mention that the winner is not publicly named until the Writers Festival in August, so I’ll have to watch that 🙂