New $30,000 Australasian literary prize celebrating historical fiction

There’s a major new literary prize set to award $30,000 to an outstanding historical novelist.

The ARA Group is partnering with The Historical Novel Society Australasia (HNSA) to bring you the ARA Historical Novel Prize.

According to the media release:

“The new ARA Historical Novel Prize gives Australian and New Zealand historical novelists the chance to be recognised in a class of their own, with the most significant prize money for any genre-based prize in Australasia. Entries will be judged on excellence in writing, depth of research, and reader appeal.”

The prize is a whopping $30,000!

Are you eligible to enter? From the media release: “Applications are open to all authors – whether traditionally or self-published – who are residents or citizens of Australia or New Zealand, with books published between 1 January 2019 and 30 June 2020. Entries may be submitted by authors, publishers and agents.”

What do they mean by “historical fiction”? They’re after fiction novels written at least 50 years after the events described.

Entries open 1 May 2020 and close on 30 June 2020.

The longlist will be announced mid-September and the shortlist will be announced mid-October.

The winner of the ARA Historical Novel Prize will be announced on 18 November 2020.

To find out more and to enter, visit The Historical Novel Society Australasia website.