Tasmanian author and University alumna Dr Katherine Johnson has received The Australian Fiction Prize, a new annual prize for a book-length work of fiction.
Open to all Australian writers, the prize is a major new literary award for Australian storytelling with the winner being published by HarperCollins Australia.
To be published as Every Wild Soul, “It is the story of a remote Tasmanian island, a teenage daughter kept captive by her overprotective father, and a handsome shipwreck survivor who is not who he seems,” said HarperCollins.
“It is a propulsive and emotional novel of a young women’s perilous attempt to break away from an island she loves, with nature and courage at its heart.”
Johnson has written several previous novels, including Pescador’s Wake (HarperCollins), The Better Son (Ventura), Matryoshka (Ventura), and Paris Savages (Ventura). She has won two Varuna HarperCollins Manuscript Development Awards (in 2007 and 2013). The Better Son was also awarded the University of Tasmania Prize for an unpublished manuscript at the 2013 Tasmanian Literary Awards. Paris Savages was shortlisted in the 2020 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA), and this title has also been published in the UK, the US and Italy.
Johnson has degrees in science and journalism, and holds a PhD in creative writing from the University of Tasmania. She is also a feature writer, with her work appearing in publications including the Conversation, Good Weekend, Island and Forty South. She works part-time in alumni and philanthropy communications at the University of Tasmania, and on the Writing Better Judgments program of the National Judicial College of Australia. A Wild Heart was written with the support of a grant from Arts Tasmania.
“I am absolutely thrilled and enormously grateful to receive this award,” Johnson said.
“I’ve been living and breathing this novel for a few years, around part-time work. To know that Min’s story of courage and resilience, as well as the hope of rewilding, will now reach readers means the world.
“The prize will provide precious writing time and a connection with new readers, which is one of the really lovely things about being a writer.”
Australian literary editor Caroline Overington said: ‘I was enchanted by Katherine’s main character, Min, a girl with a wild spirit, from the first few pages.
“I could see readers taking her into their hearts, and cheering her on, as she takes tentative steps toward freedom, and a life of one’s own,” she said.
“I adored the descriptions of her home on remote Maria Island, which presents in the manuscript as a precious jewel.”
HarperCollins Australia head of fiction Catherine Milne said the manuscript “stood out straightaway as a serious contender”.
“We all loved the evocative, wild setting of Maria Island, the beautiful nature writing, the plot propelled by a mysterious death, and the entwined themes of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, extinction and rewilding,” Milne said.
“It’s a sweeping, beautiful and emotional novel of the struggle between independence and control, nature, love and courage, which echoes Where the Crawdads Sing, The Last Migration and The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart. It will be a joy to publish and bring to readers everywhere.”
Top of page: Katherine Johnson | Photo: Jack Lloyd-Parker