Calibre Prize 2014

Early in February I received an email to inform me that I had been longlisted for this year's Calibre Prize! The title of my submitted essay is 'A hole in the heart: on secrets, silence, and sorrow' and is memoir based on my adoptive life.

The shortlist was released this month on the Australian Book Review's website. Here is the announcement:

The Calibre Prize, now in its eighth year, continues to attract outstanding new essays. This year we received almost 100 essays, with a huge variety of styles and subject matter. The judges – Morag Fraser and Peter Rose – have shortlisted six of them:
– Ruth Balint: ‘The Paradox of Weimar: Hitlerism and Goethe’
– Martin Edmond: ‘Five Towns’
– Rebecca Giggs: ‘Open Ground: Trespassing on the Pilbara’s Mining Boom’
– Christine Piper: ‘Unearthing the Past’
– Anne-Marie Priest: ‘“Something very difficult and unusual”: The Love Song of Henry and Olga’
– Stephen Wright: ‘Blows upon a Bruise’
This year the winner (who will receive $5000) will be announced at a special ceremony on Wednesday, 26 March. This will take place in the Assembly Hall at Boyd, starting at 6 pm. The essayists will read extracts from their essays. This is a free public event, but reservations are necessary: rsvp@australianbookreview.com.au.
ABR will then publish the winning essay in the April issue, followed by the other shortlisted essays.

Congratulations to all the shortlisted writers and I look forward to reading their essays.

He was sitting

He was sitting eeriely still at the table. She tried to look in his direction only every so often, so as not to seem obvious. His eyes were large and clear, no bloodshot haziness. He was reading a book, plain-clothed so she couldn't see the title, and was turning the pages at a reasonable rate. But something drew her eyes back to him. And then he looked up at her suddenly, and she froze.