Believe In Me wins the 2022 ACT Book of the Year Award

We are thrilled to share the news that Lucy Neave’s novel Believe in Me has been awarded the 2022 ACT Book of the Year!

This $10,000 prize is awarded for excellence in literature (fiction, non-fiction and poetry) to ACT-based writers, and aims to promote writing in the ACT and contribute to a positive writing culture in the ACT.

Believe in Me was considered by the judges to be a moving and beautiful novel that combines deep feeling with insight and compassion, exploring the bonds of motherhood, the fragility of knowing, and familial inheritance. The judges (Patrick Mullins, author and poet Sam Faulkner, and Canberra Times journalist Jasper Lindell) consider Lucy's second novel as one that:

"moves across continents and time, telling an expansive story that vividly explores the bonds of motherhood, the fragility of knowing and familial inheritance."

For Lucy, the book is about connections as it explores three generations of one family:

"My book is kind of about the act of the imagination, and how the main character imagines the life of her mother to try and make peace with her."

Congratulations, Lucy!