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Sheaffer Pen Prize for Young Adult Fiction
Subcategory of Victorian Premier's Literary Awards
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Latest Winners / Recipients

Year: 1998

winner y separately published work icon Night Train Judith Clarke , Ringwood : Penguin , 1998 Z383186 1998 single work novel young adult Only Luke can hear the night train. Threatened at school, pressured by his parents, paralysed by anxiety about his final exams, Luke begins to doubt himself. Is the night train real, or is it only in his mind? If it's real then he's all right; then, no matter what, he can start all over again.

Year: 1997

winner y separately published work icon Pagan's Scribe Catherine Jinks , Norwood : Omnibus Books , 1996 Z184803 1996 single work novel young adult historical fiction

'In France in 1209, Pagan, now an archdeacon, takes on a new scribe named Isidore, a fifteen-year-old epileptic and an orphan, and together they try to survive the siege of Carcassonne.' (Publication summary)

Year: 1996

winner y separately published work icon Sleeping Dogs Sonya Hartnett , Ringwood : Viking , 1995 Z238800 1995 single work novel young adult (taught in 8 units) The misanthropic, sadistic father of five children, ages 12 to 25, Griffin Willow runs a trailer park on his dilapidated farm in rural Australia. Isolated from all outside influences, even the neighboring small town, the Willow family has created its own oppressive, sheltered, and decaying world. Despite abuse from their father and a silent, withdrawn mother, all five children live at home and help run the trailer park. Twenty-three-year-old Michelle and her younger brother Jordan have found solace in an incestuous relationship, which they carefully conceal from their parents. When Bow Fox, an itinerant artist, comes to stay at the park, their 15-year-old brother, Oliver, accidently reveals their secret. So begins an agonizing, irreversible progression of violence and betrayal. (Source: Trove)

Year: 1995

winner y separately published work icon Death of a River Guide Richard Flanagan , Ringwood : McPhee Gribble , 1994 Z822275 1994 single work novel (taught in 5 units) 'Beneath a waterfall on the Franklin, Aljaz Cosini, river guide, lies drowning. Beset by visions at once horrible and fabulous, he relives not just his own life but that of his family and forebears. As the river rises his visions grow more turbulent, and in the flood of the past Aljaz discovers the soul history his country'. (Source: Trove)

Year: 1994

winner y separately published work icon The Mule's Foal Fotini Epanomitis , St Leonards : Allen and Unwin , 1993 Z922775 1993 single work novel

'In one despairing moment Theodosios abandons his wife and gorilla child and then spends a lifetime trying to get them back. But what's a lifetime in a place like this?

'One minute you're a woman. The next you're a bear. There's a woman here who is neither man nor woman. And a man who's both man and beast.

'Here nothing belongs to you - not even your grief. People steal your letters and gossip your thoughts before you've spoken them. And when they're desperate - and at some point everyone is desperate - they go to the whorehouse. . . From the centre of chaos, Mirella, the ancient whore, finds a calm place to tell this unforgettable, timeless tale.' (Publication summary)
VIEW ALL LISTED RECIPIENTS (12)
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