Western suburbs writers and poets are being encouraged to enter the Williamstown Literary Festival’s Ada Cambridge awards.
Named after one of the suburb’s most famous daughters, the Ada Cambridge Biographical Prose Prize and and Poetry Prize are open to people who live, work or study in Hobsons Bay, Maribyrnong, Brimbank, Hume, Melton, Moonee Valley or Wyndham.
A prolific Victorian novelist and diarist, Cambridge wrote her best-known work, Thirty Years In Australia, in 1903.
It chronicled her busy life as a vicar’s wife, accompanying her husband to various postings in country Victoria before finishing up at Williamstown’s Holy Trinity Anglican parish. Her writing explored controversial subjects of the day, such as unhappy marriages, divorce, bigamy and euthanasia.
Last year’s biographical short story winner, Williamstown resident Helen Bradwell, wrote about her experiences working as a teacher in Africa.
“It’s a story called Davy, about a man who I worked with in Zambia. I did two years as a volunteer in Zambia working with a community school,” says Bradwell, who is now working on a young adult novel.
The prizes are aimed at emerging writers looking to gain exposure. All shortlisted poems and stories will be published in an anthology.
Entries for the Bendigo Bank Ada Cambridge awards close on April 3. Winners will be announced at the 10th Williamstown Literary Festival, from May 31 to June 2. Entry forms can be downloaded at willylitfest.org.au or libraries.hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au
