AustLit logo

AustLit

The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

History

'The £10,000 Encore Award for the best second novel was first awarded in 1990 and is sponsored by Lucy Astor. The award fills a niche in the catalogue of literary prizes by celebrating the achievement of outstanding second novels, often neglected in comparison to the attention given to promising first books.'

Source: Encore Award website (http://www.encoreaward.com/index.php/about-the-award). (Sighted: 5/6/2014)

Notes

  • Administered by the Society of Authors in London, this award is worth 10,000 pounds.Criteria for entry (i) The work must be a novel by one author who has had one (and only one) novel published previously. (ii) The work must be in the English language, first published in the UK, and not a book for children. (iii) Either: (a) the author must be a British or a Commonwealth citizen or (b) the book must have been first published in the UK.

Latest Winners / Recipients

Year: 2013

winner y separately published work icon All the Birds, Singing Evie Wyld , North Sydney : Random House Australia , 2013 Z1929805 2013 single work novel mystery (taught in 4 units)

'Who or what is watching Jake Whyte from the woods?

'Jake Whyte is the sole resident of an old farmhouse on an unnamed island, a place of ceaseless rains and battering winds. It's just her, her untamed companion, Dog, and a flock of sheep. Which is how she wanted it to be. But something is coming for the sheep - every few nights it picks one off, leaves it in rags.

'It could be anything. There are foxes in the woods, a strange boy and a strange man, rumours of an obscure, formidable beast. And there is Jake's unknown past, perhaps breaking into the present, a story hidden thousands of miles away and years ago, in a landscape of different colour and sound, a story held in the scars that stripe her back.

'Set between Australia and a remote English island, All the Birds, Singing is the story of one how one woman's present comes from a terrible past. It is the second novel from the award-winning author of After the Fire, A Still Small Voice.' (Publisher's blurb)

Year: 2009

winner y separately published work icon Disquiet Julia Leigh , Camberwell : Penguin , 2008 Z1457081 2008 single work novella (taught in 3 units) An elegant young woman stands with her two children at the gate of an austere chateau, locked out. The three have come from Australia, escaping violence, and their arrival is unexpected. The two children have never been here before. The woman, Olivia, has come home. But home is not what it was. Even when Olivia gains entry, what she finds is not what she left. While the children are entranced by the house, the formal gardens and the inviting lake, Olivia learns that members of her estranged family have experienced tragedies they cannot openly discuss - just as she has, herself - leading them to behave in ways that destabilise a world of exquisite artifice and control. - from dust jacket flap

Year: 2007

winner y separately published work icon Carry Me Down M. J. Hyland , Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2006 Z1247272 2006 single work novel thriller

'John Egan is a misfit — "a twelve year old in the body of a grown man with the voice of a giant" — who diligently keeps a "log of lies." John's been able to detect lies for as long as he can remember, it's a source of power but also great consternation for a boy so young. With an obsession for the Guinness Book of Records, a keenly inquisitive mind, and a kind of faith, John remains hopeful despite the unfavorable cards life deals him.

'This is one year in a boy's life. On the cusp of adolescence, from his changing voice and body, through to his parents’ difficult travails and the near collapse of his sanity, John is like a tuning fork sensitive to the vibrations within himself and the trouble that this creates for he and his family.

'Carry Me Down is a restrained, emotionally taut, and sometimes outrageously funny portrait whose drama drives toward, but narrowly averts, an unthinkable disaster.' (Publication summary)

Year: 2004

winner y separately published work icon The Hamilton Case Michelle De Kretser , Milsons Point : Random House , 2003 Z1022070 2003 single work novel crime historical fiction 'Having come of age on the island nation of Ceylon, Sam Obeysekere is a lawyer whose life is guided by the British culture that dominates his homeland. Educated at Oxford, with a dazzling career in his sights, Sam is more English than the English. Only his flamboyant, unruly mother, exiled to a jungle estate, reminds him of his family's real heritage and a different set of home truths. Sam's undoing arrives in the form of the Hamilton case, a scandalous murder that shakes the upper echelons of island society. Guided by grandiose visions of Sherlock Holmes, he becomes convinced he can solve the mysterious case - and that his good standing with the English will insulate him from the unrest the case has exposed. In the end, Sam grapples with a life that has been "a series of substitutions," the darkest of human misfortunes.'--BOOK JACKET.

Works About this Award

Bookmarks : De Kretser on the Case Jason Steger , 2004 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 15 May 2004; (p. 6)
X