An “ecological love story” is not a common genre, but this is how Susie Greenhill, winner of this year’s Richell prize, sees her novel The Clinking.
Greenhill, who was also longlisted for last year’s Richell prize, stood out among 428 entries in the second year of the award, which is offered to Australian writers who have not yet published a book.
A partnership between Guardian Australia, the Emerging writers’ festival and Hachette Australia, the prize is judged blind and includes $10,000 in prize money, a mentorship and a publication option with Hachette.
Michaela McGuire, a judge of the prize and the director of the Emerging writers’ festival, described Greenhill’s writing as “electric, and profoundly affecting”.
The Clinking explores themes of extinction, grief and interconnection against the backdrop of a warming climate, through the eyes of a scientist watching “the world he loves and knows intimately disappearing around him”.
Greenhill told Guardian Australia: “I feel like there are a lot of voices that don’t get heard adequately and right now one of those is the natural world.”
Greenhill, 43, from Randalls Bay in Tasmania, said she didn’t start writing seriously until her mid 30s. While her writing skills were honed during a period of extensive travel in which she wrote copious letters to family and friends, the real catalyst was an experience during a creative writing workshop.
“I read a piece to the people in the workshop and it just felt like I’d communicated for the first time,” she said. “That was quite a pivotal moment, so I decided to explore what would happen if I started finishing pieces and sending them out.”
Her first published work was in the Tasmanian literary journal, Island. She credits the Tasmanian literary community, particularly emerging writers and editors, with key support during the early stages of her writing career.
Greenhill recently completed her PhD at Edith Cowan University in which she explored similar environmental themes through a collection of short stories. She says the “financial breathing space” provided by the award will be immensely helpful, but is still very much surprised by her win.
“It’s a beautiful opportunity,” Greenhill said, accepting the award. “I hope I can create something that would make [Matt Richell] proud. I am totally overwhelmed.”
Also making the shortlist for this year’s prize were Andrea Baldwin’s The Illusion of Islands, which examines a family’s attempt to save the loggerhead turtle from extinction; Emma Doolan’s psychological thriller Dark Tides; Sophie Overett’s story The Rabbits, about family secrets, art and loneliness; and Susie Thatcher’s literary mystery Gardens of Stone.
The Richell prize was initiated last year in honour of Hachette publisher Matt Richell who died unexpectedly in 2014. This year’s judges included McGuire, senior editor at Guardian Australia Lucy Clark, bookseller Karen Ferris and Hachette publisher Vanessa Radnidge.
