. World News – AU – Wiradjuri author Tara June Winch ends the big year by winning the Prime Minister’s Literature Prize of 80. $ 000

Nine people with links to Bikie gangs were charged with allegedly fraudulent claims for public funds intended for bushfire victims

Do you have any questions about Australia’s relationship with China? Ask our experts Stan Grant, Stephen Dziedzic and Bang Xiao

Wiradjuri writer Tara June Winch has completed an incredible year of recognition for her novel, The Yield, at 80. Won a US $ 000 fictional award at the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards.

That completes a hat trick that began with the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, where they won Book of the Year (Nov.. $ 000), the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction (40. $ 000) and took home the People’s Choice Award, followed by the Miles Franklin Literary Award (60. 000 US dollars).

In an interview with ABC from France, where she has lived since 2011, the author said the prize money would enable her to « come home » to Australia.

Winch, who grew up in a coastal suburb of East Woonona on the south coast of New South Wales, hasn’t seen her family since December 2019 and hopes to move to Australia in 2021 to be close to them.

« For the past few months I’ve felt like I had to go home. It’s been too long. It hurts too, « she said.

« That was really great about this financial blessing [winning the award] – it allowed me to come home. That’s the greatest price of all. « 

In The Yield, a 30-year-old overseas woman returns to the small town of Massacre Plains, where she grew up, to bury her grandfather – to find her home under the threat of a tin mine.

At the center of the story is a dictionary of the Wiradjuri language that her grandfather wrote before his death.

Winch was inspired to make the story after attending a language workshop based on the Wiradjuri dictionary developed by Dr. Uncle Stan Grant Snr and Dr. John Rudder was put together.

When she spoke to ABC earlier this year, she described it as a profound moment: « I was so moved when I discovered it [this language]. It felt like a balm and a cultural connection fixed. « 

The Yield is one of three books by indigenous women to win awards at this year’s Prime Minister’s Literature Awards.

Songspirals: Sharing the wisdom of women about the land through songlines, the Gay’wu women’s group shared the non-cash prize with Christina Thompson’s Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia; and the children’s book Cooee Mittigar: A Story About Darug Songlines, written by Jasmine Seymour and illustrated by Leanne Mulgo Watson, won the Children’s Literature Prize.

Jasmine Seymour (author) and Leanne Mulgo Watson (illustrations) for Cooee Mittigar: A Story About Darug Songlines

This service may contain material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service that is copyrighted and cannot be reproduced.

AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time, 10 hours before GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)

Literature, Prime Minister’s Literature Awards, Tara June Winch, Miles Franklin Award, Publishing