tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8054138342151796467.post4227656924014084643..comments2023-07-17T22:58:18.625+09:30Comments on Read, Think, Write: New prize for writers: the Barbara Jefferis Award (part 1)Kerryn Goldsworthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11270814460793882309noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8054138342151796467.post-90617937892693016292007-04-02T12:25:27.156+09:302007-04-02T12:25:27.156+09:30You might be interested in this article from the ...You might be interested in <a href="http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/features/article2374359.ece" rel="nofollow">this article</a> from the Independent, following recent comments by the chair of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction.missvhttp://missv.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8054138342151796467.post-14500078020030883972007-04-02T12:59:52.517+09:302007-04-02T12:59:52.517+09:30Thanks very much for that link. I read those comme...Thanks very much for that link. I read those comments when they were first made, and my immediate reaction was that it isn't gender-specific. Something quite weird has happened to fiction writers' imaginations in the last decade or so. My theory is that we no longer expect to be told the truth even by the media, much less by the governments, so we have turned elsewhere -- to reading magazines, books, websites and blogs -- in the hope of not being lied to. I think this has done something very strange to our idea of what fiction is supposed to be.Kerryn Goldsworthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11270814460793882309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8054138342151796467.post-59203679511779186852007-04-02T14:57:28.053+09:302007-04-02T14:57:28.053+09:30I'll look forward to your longer piece. Great...I'll look forward to your longer piece. Great to know there is a new prize, and one that puts a priority on women's issues, but the criteria sound a little mysterious -- or dare I say dated? As if they're harking back to the old days of the 'images of women' feminist critique. I think the fiction about women I enjoy the most is that which shows women's lives in all their problematic glory rather than showing 'positive role models.' (I'm having irreverent jungfrau visions at this moment.)elsewherehttp://elsewhere.typepad.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8054138342151796467.post-24778976764822139082007-04-02T15:43:54.937+09:302007-04-02T15:43:54.937+09:30Yeah -- there are various pieces round the online ...Yeah -- there are various pieces round the online traps giving bits and pieces of information. No mention in the will is made of 'role models' --according to the ASA President it's more subtle and more open than that -- meant, rather, to exclude the sorts of novels that either relegate women to the role of object, construct them in a negative light, or exclude them altogether. <br><br>For example, the two books that sprang to my mind immediately were, as an ideal potential winner, Frank Moorhouse's <i>Grand Days</i>, and, as one I would personally count as ineligible, Shirley Hazzard's <i>The Great Fire</i>, whose heroine is sixteen to her romantic hero-lover's 32, and whose positive qualities insofar as she has any seem entirely due to her having been educated by her brother, her brother's gay tutor, and her lover. The lover loves her precisely because she is such a blank page upon which to write, though I'm sure Ms Hazzard would object to my putting it quite liike that. <i>Elizabeth Costello</i> is an obvious yes; <i>The Riders</i> is an obvious no.<br><br>(Actually since the award specifies 'an Australian writer' I hope that either the will or the ASA implements a clear non-negotiable definition of same, ie a Australian citizen, which would make Coetzee eligible but might rule out Hazzard.)<br><br><i>Jungfrau</i> (is that what you meant, or am I over-reading here??) would be a shoo-in winner, in my estimation, because of the way all those girls have agency and energy and struggle actively against their times, <i>and</i> it's a good book.<br><br>Having said all that, I'd add for good measure that just because the 'images of women' thing was an early and comparatively simple form of feminist critique, it doesn't make it a bad, worthless or discredited one. God knows it's still an applicable and relevant approach to the movies.Kerryn Goldsworthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11270814460793882309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8054138342151796467.post-79389350905143201732007-04-03T19:09:56.667+09:302007-04-03T19:09:56.667+09:30How can you "empower" "status"...How can you "empower" "status"?I think you could only "empower" a person and perhaps enhance that person's "status".<br>We at the Masculist Lit. Soc. decided long ago to avoid using the buzz words of the feminists because they had been so overused that they almost totally lost their meaning.dany le rouxnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8054138342151796467.post-16009775217653024942007-04-04T18:55:17.973+09:302007-04-04T18:55:17.973+09:30Another award, possibly of interest, is the R. Car...Another award, possibly of interest, is the R. Carson Gold Short Story Competition, administered by FAWQ and worth a thousand dollars first prize - it's had a long history of questioning of its conditions for entry as laid down in the [Carson?] will. [Entrants must be born in Australia and the story must be set in Australia or adjacent islands].Ralphwalleahpress.com.au/b25noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8054138342151796467.post-41836045084631142002007-04-15T18:53:04.641+09:302007-04-15T18:53:04.641+09:30By endowing this prize, John Hinde has pretty much...By endowing this prize, John Hinde has pretty much guaranteed an annual discussion of feminism and women's status in Australia - a discussion that might even go beyond the phony work versus family argument. <br><br>I think it is beaut thing to do, and a great way to remember Barbara Jefferis.Ali Jane Smithhttp://www.geocities.com/alijanesmith/noreply@blogger.com