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2016 Deborah Cass Prize shortlist announced

Five aspiring writers from migrant backgrounds have been shortlisted for the 2016 Deborah Cass Prize.

Now in its second year, the prize was established in the memory of Melbourne writer Deborah Cass and aims to support unpublished authors from a migrant background to find a voice and to encourage them to finish and publish their work.

The shortlisted writers are:

  • Edita Mujkic
  • Jean Bachoura
  • Katerina Craven
  • Linda Judge
  • Monica Raszewski

The shortlisting panel said they were once again pleased with the number of entries and the quality of the five shortlisted stories.

“We are again excited to see how the shortlisted pieces show a powerful personal engagement with the migrant experience and use vivid writing to illuminate that experience,” the panel said.

“Whether the writers are migrants or their children, their writing reveals not only the joy, displacement, fulfillment and pain of migration but Australia’s deep and enduring connections to the rest of the world.”

The winning writer will receive a cash prize of $3,000 plus a three-month mentorship with an established writer. The manuscript will be presented to a publisher.

The winner will be announced at an event at the Centre for Contemporary Photography on Tuesday 13 December 2016 from 6pm.    

The inaugural prize was won by Moreno Giovannoni for ‘Tales of San Ginese’.

For more information, visit the Deborah Cass Prize website.

About Deborah Cass

The granddaughter of Jewish immigrants, Deborah became a prize-winning professor of International Law at the London School of Economics. After being diagnosed with cancer, Deborah left her academic career and focused on creative writing. She had a number of short fiction pieces published, but was unable to realise her aim to complete a novel. With generous support from family and friends, this prize aims to help someone outside the mainstream find a voice for themselves.

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