Paul D. Carter
Today I would like to congratulate Paul D. Carter, winner of the Australian/Vogel Literary Award 2012. The Australian/Vogel Literary Award is one of Australia’s top literary awards and recognises writers under the age of 35 with unpublished manuscripts. This award is a great way for Australian authors to break into the Australian literary field. The prize includes $20,000 and publication by Allen and Unwin. The Award has helped launch careers of some of Australia’s most successful writers, including Kate Grenville, Andrew McGahan and Tim Winton. This year Paul D. Carter’s manuscript Eleven Seasons is recognised by this award.
Eleven Seasons is a coming-of-age story is about Melbourne schoolboy Jason Dalton, whose youth is filled with skateboards, spraypaint and an obsession with the Hawthorn Hawks. Carter was inspired by Martin Amis, David Foster Wallace and in particular the prologue to Don DeLillo’s novel Underworld. He wrote several drafts of the novel while studying his PhD and then become a high school teacher.
It will be interesting to see how this book turns out, it sounds a bit like a modern Australian Catcher in The Rye. Congratulations again to Paul D. Carter.
I hadn’t heard of this award. Good to see some up and coming Australian authors getting their foot in the door.
It’s a good little award