25.05.22
The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) is thrilled to announce the judging panel for the 2022 Barbara Jefferis Award: Toni Jordan (Chair), Peggy Frew and Declan Fry.
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Toni Jordan is the author of six novels including the international best-seller Addition, which was long-listed for the Miles Franklin award; Nine Days, which was awarded Best Fiction at the 2012 Indie Awards, and Our Tiny, Useless Hearts (2016), which was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award and for the Voss Literary Award. Toni holds a Bachelor of Science in physiology and a PhD in creative arts. Her most recent novel is Dinner with the Schnabels (2022). |
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Peggy Frew is a writer and musician who lives in Naarm (Melbourne). Her work has been published in The Age, Kill Your Darlings, Meanjin, Qantas Magazine, NGV Magazine and The Big Issue. Her second novel, Hope Farm was the winner of the 2016 Barbara Jefferis Award, and her third novel, Islands, was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Her fourth novel, Wildflowers, will be published later this year. |
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Declan Fry has written for The Guardian, Astra Magazine, Overland, Australian Book Review, Westerly and elsewhere. His poetry has been shortlisted for the Judith Wright Poetry Prize and selected for The Best Australian Science Writing 2021. His Meanjin essay “Justice for Elijah or a Spiritual Dialogue with Ziggy Ramo, Dancing” received the 2021 Peter Blazey Fellowship and he was a winner of the 2021 Griffith Review Emerging Voices Competition. His latest work appears in Another Australia (Affirm Press). He currently lives with his partner, their pup Walnut, and a cat, Turnip. @_declanfry |
About the Award
The Barbara Jefferis Award celebrates women in literature and is awarded biennially for “the best novel written by an Australian author that depicts women and girls in a positive way or otherwise empowers the status of women and girls in society”.
The Award is named for highly regarded author Barbara Jefferis, a founding member and executive director of the Australian Society of Authors. It is supported by the Barbara Jefferis Literary Fund, which was established as a result of a bequest from Barbara Jefferis’ husband, ABC film critic John Hinde, who died in 2006. The Australian Society of Authors is the Trustee of the Fund.
The winner will receive a prize of $50,000, with $5,000 to be distributed among the shortlist, making this one of the most generous literary awards in Australia.
The winner of the 2020 Barbara Jefferis Award was Lucy Treloar for Wolfe Island.
This year’s shortlist will be announced on Wednesday 24 August 2022 with the winner announcement taking place at an in-person ceremony on Thursday 22 September 2022.
For more information about the Barbara Jefferis Award, visit: https://www.asauthors.org/services/barbara-jefferis-award
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