Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Katharine Susannah Prichard Speculative Fiction Awards 2008

What a lovely afternoon on Sunday at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers' Centre which is perched near the top of Greenmount on the Darling Scarp. The scarp edges the Perth hills and, when it's clear, as it mostly is in Perth, you can see all the way across the coastal plain. It's truly spectacular at night.

The Writers' Centre is located in the house where Katharine Susannah Prichard lived and did much of her writing. Writers can rent accommodation for retreats in the house and very soon several new self-contained writer's retreats will be available too.

But back to the Awards. Even the weather was kind on Sunday. Last year there was a continual grey drizzle that dripped away at the spirits. This year it was a warm and sunny winter's day with the Award presentations and readings followed by afternoon tea on the veranda.

The results and the Judge's Report are here. It was especially exciting for me because Laura Goodin and Jason Fischer, who received commended and highly commended respectively, are two of my Clarion South mates and both are excellent writers.

5 comments:

Laura E. Goodin said...

Thank you!! -- Laura

Helen V. said...

It's a pleasure.

Anonymous said...

Yay! Thanks for the kind words.

Wish I could have been there :-) in fact I wish I lived in Perth fullstop.

Satima Flavell said...

Yup, it was a good day! Are you going to write something under "Spring" or is it just to keep us guessing?

Helen V. said...

Thanks for that, Satima. I clicked the wrong draft.