More good news from our Inanimate Alice: Perpetual Nomads headquarters: we’ve been lucky enough to make the shortlist of the 2020 Woollahra Digital Literary Award in the Fiction Category! The Woollahra Digital Literary Award is an award for Australian digital writers: “…a national literary award supporting innovation in Australian literature and publishing, encouraging writers producing work in a digital medium [and] submissions of a literary nature that are digitally born – published online or in electronic form”.

Stephen Pham, the judge of the Fiction Category, issued the following statement concerning the Fiction Prize shortlist [which also includes fabulous works by the likes of Jackie French, Peter Polites, Rachel Ang and Tamara Lazaroff]:

“In 2020, writers shortlisted for the Woollahra Digital Literary Award showcased fiction’s ability to re-imagine worlds, whether political, social, or emotional. Their works, however, are no escape from reality, no matter how tumultuous it may be, and instead compel us to re-engage with it, minds sharpened and hearts filled with hope. The shortlisted entries span a wide variety of topics, including the racialisation of body image, mega corporations’ feeble attempts to humanise themselves, White Australian identity, and imposter syndrome in the diaspora. Lingering through these diverse stories, however, is a profound sense of solitude, along with all the unexpected beauty it entails.”