The approaching-of-age story about small-town life and the complexity of household and group relationships drew on Schmidt’s personal expertise of rising up in Albany, a city within the Nice Southern area of WA, and shedding her father to most cancers.
Schmidt was 15 when she first scribbled the thought for the story down in a pocket book on a automobile journey from Albany to Perth.
The Hungerford Award has launched careers together with that of worldwide bestselling creator Natasha Lester. Credit score:
For some time it was “extra a piece of remedy” and it remained untouched in a desk drawer whereas she did a inventive writing diploma and commenced working in media.
After three years as a journalist she grew to become “conscious of the disregard for and omission of Aboriginal tales and voices within the media typically” and it occurred to her that as a West Australian author she had a duty to write down in an inclusive manner.
She determined to incorporate Noongar characters in her guide, however to keep away from cultural appropriation, stereotyping or tokenism, she undertook a college Honours venture wherein she returned to Albany and consulted straight with Noongar Elders.
“In March this 12 months, once I submitted Salt River Highway to the Hungerford, I used to be a number of months right into a six-month stint again in Albany. I’d simply began a brand new job on the ABC bureau there, and my accomplice, Pete, and I have been nonetheless surrounded by packing containers,” she informed Fremantle Press on the time of her shortlisting for the prize.
“There was a lot else that wanted to be carried out, a canine that wanted strolling, emails that wanted checking, and but I’d written ‘Hungerford Award’ on my whiteboard in huge purple capital letters. I by no means for one second imagined I’d be longlisted, not to mention shortlisted, but it surely was the primary time I had a whole draft of my manuscript, and I had that niggling feeling of ‘if not now, when?’”
So she postpone her different jobs and spent weeks honing the manuscript for submission.
“I assumed that was the top of it. I used to be proud to have merely polished the draft and submitted,” she stated.
“Fremantle Press have lengthy been my dream writer for Salt River Highway; so, to have been recognised by them? I’m nonetheless pinching myself.”
Salt River Highway can be revealed in November 2023.
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