T.A.G. Hungerford Award
Culture and the Arts Minister John Day presented Natasha Lester with the 2008 T.A.G. Hungerford Award for Fiction at a ceremony hosted by writingWA in Perth on 29 January.Initiated in 1988, the Hungerford Award has launched the careers of several leading Western Australian writers, including Gail Jones and Brenda Walker.
Natasha Lester joins this prestigious group of literary talents as the 9th winner of the Award for her manuscript What is Left Over, After.
Mr Day commended each of the 28 entrants to the 2008 TAG Hungerford Award for continuing to work with their writing in order to achieve full-length manuscripts.
“It requires a special kind of effort and ambition to do this – particularly without certainty of publication – and it’s an effort which is not often recognised or rewarded. I congratulate each of the entrants for their dedication and achievement,” Minister Day said.
Ray Coffey, former Fremantle Press Publisher and one of four T.A.G. Hungerford judges said the winner displayed considerable skill and facility with language, an originality of image and expression as well as a strong feel for character. This suggests she has the potential to develop into a very good fiction writer,” Mr Coffey said.’
Presented in a partnership between Fremantle Press, New Edition Bookshop, The West Australian Newspaper and writingWA, the T.A.G. Hungerford Award is a biennial award given for an unpublished work of fiction by a West Australian author who has not previously been published in book form.
The Award honors West Australian author T.A.G. Hungerford and his outstanding contribution to literature over a period of some sixty years.
The Award has been a major catalyst for stimulating growth in the WA literary sector, uncovering and nurturing new writing in WA and bringing that talent to public attention.
T.A.G. Hungerford Award winners to date are:
- 1990 - Brenda Walker; Crush
- 1991 - Gail Jones; The House of Breathing
- 1993 - Simone Lazaroo; The World Waiting to be Made
- 1995 - Bruce Russell; Jacob's Air
- 2000 - Christopher Murray; A Whispering Fish
- 2002 - Nathan Hobby; The Fur
- 2004 - Donna Mazza; The Albanian
- 2006 - Alice Nelson; The Last Sky
- 2008 - Natasha Lester; What is Left Over, After
The Last Sky, Alice Nelson 2006 TAG Hungerford Award winner, published Fremantle Press 2008
Adrift in a failing marriage, Maya Wise is alone in a strange world far from home. Intrigued by an elderly Chinese man carrying a caged nightingale, she begins to follow him through the streets and alleys of Hong Kong. Drawn to Ken Tiger and his painful tale of lost love in wartime Shanghai, Maya begins to piece together other stories, other histories from the world around her, and so comes to imagine a different future for herself. The Last Sky is also a moving meditation on exile, memory and the ways in which we reconcile ourselves with loss.