Edenglassie and Women & Children shortlisted for the ARA Historical Novel Prize 2024

Congratulations Melissa Lucashenko (Edenglassie) and Tony Birch (Women & Children) on being shortlisted for the 2024 ARA Historical Novel Prize!

Selected from over 130 entries, the 2024 ARA Historical Novel Prize Shortlists demonstrate the power of the historical fiction genre to recover lost, overlooked or deliberately erased histories while illuminating what is often hidden and unspoken in society today.

The winner will be announced on 23 October 2024, and will receive a grand prize of $100,000.

The judging panel for the Adult Category included Tony Maniaty (Chair), Meenakshi Bharat, Sienna Brown, Catherine Chidgey and Michael Williams.

According to the Chair, Tony Maniaty:

“Choosing this year’s shortlist from an outstanding longlist of nine novels proved challenging, but ultimately three works stood out for the high quality of their writing and their refreshing and often innovative approach to handling of history. Unanimously the judges nominated these three novels as finalists.

The sheer inventiveness of the three finalists also sets them apart. All exemplify the novel in its modern form, venturing into the complexities of the past in quite different and exciting ways, while breaking literary conventions. With often surprising turns, the genres of crime, Indigenous history and social realism are porously blended here into fresh forms of historical fiction, very effectively connecting past and present.”

The judges' on Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko

Melissa Lucashenko’s Edenglassie is a fiercely original exploration of Australia’s past and its enduring consequences. Lucashenko’s deft handling of dual timelines illuminates the brutal realities of colonisation while celebrating the resilience of Indigenous cultures. Written with the wit, heart and intelligence that define her work, the novel’s virtuoso storytelling, nuanced characterisation and deep emotional insights make Edenglassie a standout. The climactic ending is a powerful convergence of the novel’s twin threads, offering an intensely moving, revelatory moment that leaves readers to reflect on the impact of history and the possibility of healing and renewal. A bold, timely work that enriches the landscape of historical fiction.

The judges' on Women & Children by Tony Birch

Tony Birch understands the role untold stories and silences play in how we tell our histories: both national and personal. Women & Children is a deeply tender novel that tackles complex subjects like trauma and violence with grace and a deceptively simple prose. Eleven-year-old Joe Cluny and his family come alive on the page and Birch’s depiction of 1960s inner city Melbourne combines the historian’s eye for detail with the ache of lived experience. His approach to Joe’s grandmother Ada’s own secret history captures a chapter in Australia’s past with the power and delicacy that defines the best of historical fiction.