At $20,000 The Australian Vogel Literary Award is Australia'srichest and allegedly most prestigious award for an unpublished manuscript by a writer under the age of thirty-five. Tragic says allegedly, as it seems in part to be a kiss of death to a young authors chances of literary success - at least in recent times.
Whilst it can lay claim to having helped launched the careers of some of the nations' most successful writers, including Tim Winton, Kate Grenville, Gillian Mears, Brian Castro, Mandy Sayer and Andrew McGahan, it is a good few years since any of the winning writers have gone onto achieve any particular critical acclaim.
For many of those who have figured in the prize over the last 20 years it really is a question of where are they now? This is not to say that they haven't gone onto successful careers and lives elsewhere, but as for having any lasting impact on the literary award scene.......
Whilst it would be unfair to select any of the writers nominated since 2006, a look back at the list beyond that to the last 'acclaimed to have gone on to greater things', takes us right back to 1991 when Praise by Andrew McGahan won.
To some extent the prize does not seem to have kicked may goals since the controversy surrounding The Hand That Signed The Paper by Helen Demidenko in 1993 and that was a classic home goal if ever there was one. Perhaps they all just lost faith in the process after that?
Whilst it would be unfair to select any of the writers nominated since 2006, a look back at the list beyond that to the last 'acclaimed to have gone on to greater things', takes us right back to 1991 when Praise by Andrew McGahan won.
To some extent the prize does not seem to have kicked may goals since the controversy surrounding The Hand That Signed The Paper by Helen Demidenko in 1993 and that was a classic home goal if ever there was one. Perhaps they all just lost faith in the process after that?
A glance back at shortlisted works, those that didn't take out the main prize that is, reveals that only a handful every found a publisher at all!
What does it all mean? Are the Vogel judges incompetent? Does the contemporary generation of writers only have a single novel within? Did the startling lack of income derived from their first novel so traumatise them that they gave up altogether? Does getting the prize too early on place too big a pressure on to produce a decent second novel?
Some solace might be gleaned from the experience of Junot Diaz whose Oscar Wao won the Pultizer a few years back- it had been ten years since his previously acclaimed work, Drown, had been published.It could be that previous winners are just biding their time and suffering sufficiently in the suburbs to work up another bout of insight and angst.
Perhaps it's just that the judges are just more developed than the reading public as a quick straw poll amongst Tragic's award winning book reading tribe regrettably came back with an absolute zero of published Vogel winners read from the last ten years! Tragic won the prize having read one, Tuvalu by Andrew O'Connor, the 2005 winner, though the 2008 winner, Document Z by Andrew Croome, is on the reading list.
Let's hope that the Vogel curse doesn't strike the most recent joint winners, Lisa Lang’s Utopian Man and Kristel Thornell’s Night Street which were published in double quick time compared to years gone by. Hope that's not an example of the publisher wanting to at least recoup some costs before the authors disappear into suburbia or academia. Tragic does intend to read them, lest they go out of print in record time as well.
The list below provides only a quick glance, and apologies in advance if in error, it may well be that someone has become very famous and it has passed Tragic by completely. The winning books are listed and other identified publications since in brackets beside.
[Noted that Stephen Orr, runner-up in 2000 with Attempts to Draw Jesus , has gone on to publish a few more books (Hills of Grace 2004,The Cruel City due April 2011, Time's Long Ruin 2009)]
If the prize organisers and judges were football coaches they would have been sacked long ago. Maybe it's time for the Australian Vogel Literary Prize faded into oblivion like most of the writer's it chooses?
What does it all mean? Are the Vogel judges incompetent? Does the contemporary generation of writers only have a single novel within? Did the startling lack of income derived from their first novel so traumatise them that they gave up altogether? Does getting the prize too early on place too big a pressure on to produce a decent second novel?
Some solace might be gleaned from the experience of Junot Diaz whose Oscar Wao won the Pultizer a few years back- it had been ten years since his previously acclaimed work, Drown, had been published.It could be that previous winners are just biding their time and suffering sufficiently in the suburbs to work up another bout of insight and angst.
Perhaps it's just that the judges are just more developed than the reading public as a quick straw poll amongst Tragic's award winning book reading tribe regrettably came back with an absolute zero of published Vogel winners read from the last ten years! Tragic won the prize having read one, Tuvalu by Andrew O'Connor, the 2005 winner, though the 2008 winner, Document Z by Andrew Croome, is on the reading list.
Let's hope that the Vogel curse doesn't strike the most recent joint winners, Lisa Lang’s Utopian Man and Kristel Thornell’s Night Street which were published in double quick time compared to years gone by. Hope that's not an example of the publisher wanting to at least recoup some costs before the authors disappear into suburbia or academia. Tragic does intend to read them, lest they go out of print in record time as well.
The list below provides only a quick glance, and apologies in advance if in error, it may well be that someone has become very famous and it has passed Tragic by completely. The winning books are listed and other identified publications since in brackets beside.
[Noted that Stephen Orr, runner-up in 2000 with Attempts to Draw Jesus , has gone on to publish a few more books (Hills of Grace 2004,The Cruel City due April 2011, Time's Long Ruin 2009)]
If the prize organisers and judges were football coaches they would have been sacked long ago. Maybe it's time for the Australian Vogel Literary Prize faded into oblivion like most of the writer's it chooses?
2009 Winners and Shortlist (+ judges comments)
Utopian Man - by Lisa Lang - Joint Winner
Night Street - by Kristel Thornell - Joint Winner
Past Winners
2008 Winner
Document Z, by Andrew Croome
I Dream of Magda by Stefan Laszczuk
2006 The River Baptists by Belinda Castles (since published Falling Women)
2005 Tuvalu by Andrew O'Connor (nothing since?)
2004 Road Story by Julienne van Loon ( since published Beneath the Bloodwood Tree)
2003 Drown Them in the Sea by Nicholas Angel (nothing since?
Troubled Waters by Ruth Balint (no books since but a few articles and chapters as we would expect from a hard pressed academic!)
2005 Tuvalu by Andrew O'Connor (nothing since?)
2004 Road Story by Julienne van Loon ( since published Beneath the Bloodwood Tree)
2003 Drown Them in the Sea by Nicholas Angel (nothing since?
Troubled Waters by Ruth Balint (no books since but a few articles and chapters as we would expect from a hard pressed academic!)
2002 The Alphabet of Light and Dark by Danielle Wood (Rosie Little's Cautionary Tales for Girls in 2006)
2001 Skins by Sarah Hay (Texas - 2008)
Sibyl's Cave by Catherine Padmore ( nothing since?)
2000 The Artist is a Thief by Stephen Gray - Winner ( a barrister he has published Criminal Laws Northern Territory but no more novels as far as can tell- talented chap)
Attempts to Draw Jesus by Stephen Orr - Runner Up (Hills of Grace 2004,The Cruel City , April 2011, Time's Long Ruin 2009)
1999 Love and Vertigo by Hsu-Ming Teo - Winner (Behind the Moon , 2005, Cultural History in Australia, 2003 Ed)
The Water Underneath by Kate Lyons- Runner Up
1998 Pegasus in the Suburbs by Jennifer Kremmer - Winner (nothing since?)
The Salt Letters by Christine Ballint - Shortlisted
1997 Hiam by Eva Sallis- Winner (Marsh Birds 2005,book of literary criticism, Sheherazade Through the Looking Glass: The Metamorphosis of the 1001 Nights 1999)
Spotted Skin by Rowena Ivers - Shortlisted
1996 The Blindman's Hat by Bernard Cohen - Winner (Snowdrome, 1998, Hardly Beach Weather 2002)
1995 Kindling Does For Firewood by Richard King - Winner (Carrion Colon 2002, a couple of music focused works J Files Compendium 2002, Doctor Who: The Crusade 2XCD)
Eleven Months In Bunbury by James Ricks - Runner Up
No Safe Place by Mary Rose MacColl - Shortlisted
Listening For Small Sounds by Penelope Trevor - Shortlisted
1994 Swimming In Silk by Darren Williams - Winner (Angel Rock, 2002)
Bracelet Honeymyrtle by Judith Fox - Shortlisted
Bombora by Tegan Bennett - Shortlisted
Crew by Tony McGowan - Highly Commended
1993 The Hand That Signed The Paper by Helen Demidenko - Winner (Say no more)
A Mortality Tale by Jay Verney - Shortlisted
Solstice by Matt Rubinstein - Shortlisted
1992 The Mule's Foal by Fotini Epanomitis - Winner (nothing since)
1991 Praise by Andrew McGahan - Winner
1990 The Mint Lawn by Gillian Mears - Winner
1989 Mood Indigo by Mandy Sayer - Winner
Matinee by Michael Stephens - Shortlisted
1988 Oceana Fine by Tom Flood - Winner
1987 Ilias by Jim Sakkas - Winner
The Velodrome by Liam Davison - Shortlisted
1986 Glace Fruits by Robin Walton - Winner
1985 No prize awarded
1984 Lilian's Story by Kate Grenville - Winner
1983 Shields Of Trell by Jenny Summerville - Winner
1982 Birds of Passage by Brian Castro - Joint Winner
Matilda, My Darling by Nigel Krauth - Joint Winner
1981 Al Jazzar by Chris Matthews - Joint Winner
An Open Swimmer by Tim Winton - Joint Winner
1980 The Day Of The Dog by Archie Weller - Shortlisted
Jack Rivers and Me by Paul Radley - Winner (Disqualified)
2001 Skins by Sarah Hay (Texas - 2008)
Sibyl's Cave by Catherine Padmore ( nothing since?)
2000 The Artist is a Thief by Stephen Gray - Winner ( a barrister he has published Criminal Laws Northern Territory but no more novels as far as can tell- talented chap)
Attempts to Draw Jesus by Stephen Orr - Runner Up (Hills of Grace 2004,The Cruel City , April 2011, Time's Long Ruin 2009)
The Water Underneath by Kate Lyons- Runner Up
1998 Pegasus in the Suburbs by Jennifer Kremmer - Winner (nothing since?)
The Salt Letters by Christine Ballint - Shortlisted
1997 Hiam by Eva Sallis- Winner (Marsh Birds 2005,book of literary criticism, Sheherazade Through the Looking Glass: The Metamorphosis of the 1001 Nights 1999)
Spotted Skin by Rowena Ivers - Shortlisted
1996 The Blindman's Hat by Bernard Cohen - Winner (Snowdrome, 1998, Hardly Beach Weather 2002)
1995 Kindling Does For Firewood by Richard King - Winner (Carrion Colon 2002, a couple of music focused works J Files Compendium 2002, Doctor Who: The Crusade 2XCD)
Eleven Months In Bunbury by James Ricks - Runner Up
No Safe Place by Mary Rose MacColl - Shortlisted
Listening For Small Sounds by Penelope Trevor - Shortlisted
1994 Swimming In Silk by Darren Williams - Winner (Angel Rock, 2002)
Bracelet Honeymyrtle by Judith Fox - Shortlisted
Bombora by Tegan Bennett - Shortlisted
Crew by Tony McGowan - Highly Commended
1993 The Hand That Signed The Paper by Helen Demidenko - Winner (Say no more)
A Mortality Tale by Jay Verney - Shortlisted
Solstice by Matt Rubinstein - Shortlisted
1992 The Mule's Foal by Fotini Epanomitis - Winner (nothing since)
1991 Praise by Andrew McGahan - Winner
1990 The Mint Lawn by Gillian Mears - Winner
1989 Mood Indigo by Mandy Sayer - Winner
Matinee by Michael Stephens - Shortlisted
1988 Oceana Fine by Tom Flood - Winner
1987 Ilias by Jim Sakkas - Winner
The Velodrome by Liam Davison - Shortlisted
1986 Glace Fruits by Robin Walton - Winner
1985 No prize awarded
1984 Lilian's Story by Kate Grenville - Winner
1983 Shields Of Trell by Jenny Summerville - Winner
1982 Birds of Passage by Brian Castro - Joint Winner
Matilda, My Darling by Nigel Krauth - Joint Winner
1981 Al Jazzar by Chris Matthews - Joint Winner
An Open Swimmer by Tim Winton - Joint Winner
1980 The Day Of The Dog by Archie Weller - Shortlisted
Jack Rivers and Me by Paul Radley - Winner (Disqualified)
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