The 2014 winner of The Australian/Vogel's Literary Award has been revealed...
The Australian/Vogel's Literary Award is a rare and generous thing, a means for unknown writers, such as I, to have a shot at success.
In many ways, modern Australia is built on immigrant’s tales, and Vogel's founder Niels, a Danish immigrant, created his own story when he established the award as a way of giving back to his adopted community. So I feel as if I'm adding to the diversity as a half Japanese Australian, born in Korea, now living in New York, who writes about Japanese immigrants.
When I started working on this novel, five years ago, I was still in my twenties, had never published a piece of fiction, yet had an ambitious dream to write a novel from the point of view of a Japanese internee. Now I'm older, wearier, and pushing the middle aged category of writer, yet thanks to this award I'm absolutely looking forward to what lies ahead.
JUDGES' COMMENTS ON AFTER DARKNESS
'A brave, profound meditation on identity, trauma, loss and courage... reminds us that there are two sides to every war and that history never ceases to be written... A novel that demands its place alongside Richard Flanagan's The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Mark Dapin's Spirit House.' – Stephen Romei, The Australian
'Piper draws us deeper and deeper into the compelling story of Tomakazu Ibaraki, a man whose strengths – discretion, honour and loyalty – also lie at the heart of his personal tragedy.' – Danielle Wood, winner of The Australian/Vogel's Literary Award in 2002
'After Darkness is about friendships that transcend cliched notions of mateship. It's also about a man silenced by a promise ... a haunting novel that lingers in a most unsettling way.' – Fiona Stager, bookseller, Avid Reader
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christine Piper's short fiction has been published in Seizure, SWAMP and Things That Are Found in Trees and Other Stories. She was the 2013 Alice Hayes writing fellow at Ragdale in the United States. She has studied creative writing at Macquarie University, the Iowa Writers' Workshop and the University of Technology, Sydney, where she wrote a version of this novel as part of her doctoral degree. She has also worked as a magazine editor and writer for more than a decade. Born in South Korea in 1979 to an Australian father and a Japanese mother, she moved to Australia when she was one. She has previously taught English and studied Japanese in Japan, and currently lives in New York with her husband. After Darkness is her first novel.
