Publishing Prize
2023
The Shortlist
Roger Averill, Slippage
Rebecca Burton, Ravenous Girls
Rachel Flynn, New Moon Rising
Kim Kelly, Ladies’ Rest and Writing Room
Jane Skelton, Breathing Water
Olivia De Zilva, Hold on Tight
The Winners
Rebecca Burton, Ravenous Girls
Kim Kelly, Ladies’ Rest and Writing Room
About the Author
Rebecca is the author of two novels for young adults, Leaving Jetty Road and Beyond Evie, both named as Notable Books by the Children’s Book Council of Australia. Leaving Jetty Road also won a Varuna Award for Manuscript Development and both books were published overseas.
A former Senior Editor for the University of Adelaide Press, Rebecca now provides freelance editing and manuscript assessment services. More information about her work can be found at rebeccaburtoneditor.com.
Rebecca Burton
Ravenous Girls
Comments from the Judging Panel
Why this book is different
Stories of family dysfunction often expose us to relentless failure. And while Ravenous Girls is about the tensions and growing distance between two sisters—the elder burdened by anorexia, the younger by self-doubt—it is distinguished by its lithe and tender understanding of the complexities of growing up.
Why we liked it
Wonderfully expressive, Burton’s re-creation of 1980s family relationships is tuned to the quieter, more nuanced moods behind the fears and hopes of her charactacters.
Review Comments
"This short novel about family dysfunction, the fickleness of teenage friendship, mother-daughter symbiosis, and illness, packs an almighty emotional punch... Chronicles of fictional family life don't always understand that trauma is most often multilayered, like scar tissue. Just how fully author Rebecca Burton graps this is evident in her delicate characterisation and sometimes heartbreaking plot."
— The Guardian
"Burton has written a vivid, intimate sketch of 1980s adolescence - and a clear-eyed reflection on the traumatic experience of loving someone with a severe eating disorder. Fuelled by emotion recollected in tranquillity, it's a coming-of-age story of remarkable compression, compassion and nuance."
— Sydney Morning Herald & The Age
"Ravenous Girls asks profound questions about our desires and needs: Why do we hunger for certain things? What happens when we either give in to our wants, or deny ourselves what we need? This is a short but thought-providing read, and well worth your time."
— Novel Feelings
"Ravenous girls is a compassionate book that sensitively charts the emotional ups and downs that are part of the anorexia landscape... It also conveys something more generally relatable about family relationships – sisterhood and daughterhood, in particular – and about how darned hard it is to grow up."
— Whispering Gums
About the Author
Rebecca is the author of two novels for young adults, Leaving Jetty Road and Beyond Evie, both named as Notable Books by the Children’s Book Council of Australia. Leaving Jetty Road also won a Varuna Award for Manuscript Development and both books were published overseas.
A former Senior Editor for the University of Adelaide Press, Rebecca now provides freelance editing and manuscript assessment services. More information about her work can be found at rebeccaburtoneditor.com.
About the Author
Kim is the author of twelve novels, including the critically acclaimed novella, Wild Chicory, and The Rat Catcher: A Love Story, which was long-listed for the 2022 ARA Historical Novel Prize.
Kim is also a book editor and is currently researching a PhD on Australian historical fiction through Macquarie University. Originally from Sydney, she now lives in Millthorpe, central west New South Wales, on Wiradjuri Country. Find out more about Kim and her work at kimkellyauthor.com.
Kim Kelly
Ladies’ Rest and Writing Room
Comments from the Judging Panel
Why this book is different
Two young women, brought up to expect conventional lives, are thrown together in unexpected circumstances. Each has suffered a devastating loss that challenges their belief in life and themselves. It’s rare to come across a work of deep psychological insight conveyed with such verve and lightness of touch.
Why we liked it
Kelly sweeps the reader into the lives and passions of her two central characters and into the bustling city streets of Sydney in the 1920s. A powerfully moving book that sparkles with vitality.
Review Comments
"Kim Kelly's spry and endearing period novella, set in 1920s Sydney, features two unconventional women who were classmates at school, reunited by chance... This buoyant novella, in which passion and period charm converge, offers an elegant tonic for grief."
— Sydney Morning Herald & The Age
"In this beautiful novella, Kelly brings to life the bustle of Sydney, its various neighborhoods and streets, its beaches and businesses, in these post-war years. Her development of [her] two characters is tremendous... Kelly’s prose is gorgeous; reading this book is like studying a painting by a master or listening to a symphony."
— Historical Novel Society
"Within the pages of this novella Kim Kelly brings to life the loneliness and grief of two women, at a time of renewed fervour, hope and celebration following the end of the war... The story is beautifully written, the sounds and sensations of bustling Sydney life swirl around the two solitary figures adrift in the chaos."
— Read Plus
"So much atmosphere, so much detail creating such a sense of place and time bursts forth from this novella. The emotions of both Dotty and Clarinda are so on point, like a shard of glass embedded beneath the skin, I could feel their pain, their sorrow, as they each struggled with their own personal grief... Kim Kelly is one of our finest Australian writers and it gives me so much joy to recommend this winning novella to all."
— Theresa Smith Writes
About the Author
Kim is the author of twelve novels, including the critically acclaimed novella, Wild Chicory, and The Rat Catcher: A Love Story, which was long-listed for the 2022 ARA Historical Novel Prize.
Kim is also a book editor and is currently researching a PhD on Australian historical fiction through Macquarie University. Originally from Sydney, she now lives in Millthorpe, central west New South Wales, on Wiradjuri Country. Find out more about Kim and her work at kimkellyauthor.com.
Winning Authors
Interview
Julian Davies, publisher and editor at Finlay Lloyd and member of the Judging panel, interviews Rebecca and Kim about their work. Here, you can watch the full-length interview or a shorter collection of extracts.
The 20/40 Publishing Prize is overseen by an expert advisory board:
John Clanchy
Donna Ward
Dr Meredith McKinney
Emeritus Professor Kevin Brophy AM
With assistance from
Strategic Adviser: Dr Bidda Jones AM
Technical Adviser: James Smith
The 20/40 Publishing Prize is overseen by an expert advisory board:
John Clanchy
Donna Ward
Dr Meredith McKinney
Emeritus Professor Kevin Brophy AM
With assistance from
Strategic Adviser: Dr Bidda Jones AM
Technical Adviser: James Smith
Finlay Lloyd is an independent, non-profit publisher, founded in 2005, dedicated to encouraging imaginative and challenging writing, to subtly innovative design and to celebrating the pleasures of print on paper in an electronic age. To find out more, visit our website.
Finlay Lloyd is an independent, non-profit publisher, founded in 2005, dedicated to encouraging imaginative and challenging writing, to subtly innovative design and to celebrating the pleasures of print on paper in an electronic age. To find out more, visit our website.
E: finlaylloyd@sharewater.net