Evelyn Araluen awarded the 2021 Professional Development Award by the Melbourne Prize

Congratulations to Evelyn Araluen, author of Dropbear, who has been awarded the 2021 Professional Development Award by the Melbourne Prize. The $20,000-prize is awarded to a Victorian published author to fund a project/s, travel or other proposals that will assist them pursue their writing career. There are no finalists in this Award.

Evelyn told Jason Steger, Literary Editor of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, that the money would allow her to consider creative writing as part of her career 'as opposed to a thing I did alongside my other jobs'.

She describes her next project as a joint fiction and critical project:

The main thing is a novel called Carrion, a novel that stages and explores the history of this intersection of sexism and racism in Australian literature and what that has been historically and what the legacies are today, not just for me as an Aboriginal woman but how it has affected all women in the process.

Launched in 2004, the Melbourne Prize Trust recognises and rewards excellence and talent, inspires creative development and enriches public life.

The Trust achieves these aims by running the annual Melbourne Prize, which is now in its 17th year and is funded by a collaboration of partnerships and patrons.