I’m truly thrilled that my unpublished novel, Wonderland, has been shortlisted for the NZSA Laura Solomon Cuba Press Prize 2024, a prize that celebrates writing with a ‘unique and original vision’.
The shortlist of four writers – Abigail von Ahsen, Jade Hallamore, Jacqueline Owens and me – was judged by Cassie Hart and Anne Kennedy, and the winner will be announced in June.
Read the shortlist announcement, with judges’ comments, here.
The annual prize, which celebrates the life and work of writer Laura Solomon, was inaugurated in 2020 from a bequest from Laura and the Solomon family. Read about Laura’s work, and the prize in her name, here.
The Cuba Press is an independent publishing house helmed by co-directors and publishers Mary McCallum and Sarah Bolland. The press, based in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, is named for the Cuba, one of the first ships to bring settlers to Wellington in the 1800s.
Image heading this post: Heaphy, Charles, 1820-1881: The “Cuba” at anchor, in a N.W. breeze, at Port Nicholson heads, 1840, an original drawing by Chas Heaphy, then draughtsman to N.Z.Company [July 1840]. Ref: A-144-003. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23226787