March 13, 2015
Indonesia manuscript wins Hungerford Award
UOW creative arts and journalism graduate Madelaine Dickie has won a prestigious West Australian literary prize for her manuscript Troppo, a work of fiction focusing on Australia’s relationship with Indonesia.
The 28-year-old author was last night (12 March) awarded the City of Fremantle T.A.G. Hungerford Award, named in honour of the Western Australian writer and identity.
Dickie, who also won the Illawarra Mercury Journalism Prize in 2011, said Troppo was her attempt to define the mysterious magnetism and complicated ties that Australians had to Indonesia – a personal quest that began after someone she knew was killed in the Bali bombings.
— Fremantle Press (@FremantlePress) March 12, 2015 “Despite the fact that so many Australians travel to Indonesia for holidays and to surf, there doesn’t seem to be a great deal of literature exploring this connection,” Dickie said.
“The surf culture plays a huge role in this book, with a focus on what happens when this collides with a very different culture: that of Indonesian people in an area where most are devout Muslims.”
— UOWTV Multimedia (@UOWTV) March 12, 2015 Dickie, who is a keen surfer and ambassador for Treehouse Landscapes and Handshapes in Bulli, NSW, said much of the background material for Troppo was teased out over many cups of sweet black coffee with her Indonesian lecturers and friends at Universitas Padjadjaran and Universitas Islam Bandung in West Java.
“I was able to sharpen some of the finer philosophical points in the book, particularly in relation to Islam and traditional beliefs, Islam and fundamentalism and Islam and women,” she said.
Fremantle Mayor Brad Pettitt presented the award at the Fremantle Arts Centre on Thursday 12 March. The mayor praised the shortlisted contenders for their hard work, talent and determination.
The Hungerford is awarded biennially to a full-length manuscript of fiction or creative non-fiction, by a Western Australian author previously unpublished in book form. It is sponsored by the City of Fremantle, Fremantle Press, writingWA and The West Australian.
The award is judged anonymously and this year’s judges were Delys Bird, Susan Midalia, Richard Rossiter and Fremantle Press publisher Georgia Richter. The winner receives $12,000 from the City of Fremantle plus a publishing contract with Fremantle Press.
Madelaine Dickie currently resides in Broome, Western Australia. Troppo will be published in 2016.
Media contact: Claire Miller, cmiller@fremantlepress.com.au, +61 419 837 841
About the author
Madelaine Dickie studied creative arts and journalism at the University of Wollongong. In 2011 she received a Prime Minister’s Australia Asia Endeavour Award to move to West Java, Indonesia, and complete her first novel, Troppo. As part of this award, she worked with mentors at Universitas Padjadjaran and Universitas Islam Bandung.
She is the recipient of the Illawarra Mercury Journalism Prize (2011) and the Nicholas Pounder Prize (2009). In 2012 she was shortlisted for the Robert Hope Memorial Prize.
Her writing has appeared in numerous publications including GriffithREVIEW (2013), the American journal Creative Nonfiction (2012), Hecate (2010) and Kurungabaa (2009, 2010, 2012). Her radio stories have been broadcast on Radio National and ABC Kimberley and she also writes and rides for the surfboard company Treehouse Landscapes and Handshapes.
Madelaine currently lives in Broome, where she works for KRED Enterprises, an organisation committed to sustainable Aboriginal economic development.
About T.A.G. Hungerford (1915–2011)
T.A.G. Hungerford was widely admired as a quintessential Western Australian writer and identity. He was a major contributor in helping us define our sense of self and place in a rapidly changing world. His first collection of short stories was published in 1976 by Fremantle Press. Stories From Suburban Road, A Knockabout with a Slouch Hat and Red Rover All Over have all been major publishing successes.
In 1987 T.A.G. Hungerford was made a member of the Order of Australia. In 2002 he was the recipient of the Patrick White Award and in 2004 he was declared a Western Australian State Living Treasure. He was proud to have the unique WA award for debut writers, the T.A.G. Hungerford Award, named for him. He was always a great supporter of new and emerging writers.