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Half an hour after receiving the PMLA prize for poetry, I was on the phone to a journalist. "No one likes to talk about the money side of things because the assumption is everyone in the room is already privileged enough it won't matter to them." https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7048924/i-was-tired-of-being-told-where-i-belong-poets-big-literary-award/?cs=14264&utm_source=website&utm_medium=index&utm_campaign=sidebar
"We should absolutely be having the conversation to make the awards more equitable, whether that means less for the winner or everyone gets the same amount." Listen. Anyone who has followed me or knows me is aware I have been long critical of our prize system. It needs to change.
Our three biggest awards (Miles Franklin, PMLA's, Stella) all give prize money to the shortlistees but every other prize doesn't. It's winner takes all. This is gross. At the very least, every shortlisted writer should be awarded prize money.
I'd go further and abolish having one winner at all tbh. All things being equal, split the money equally. And if things aren't equal, adjust accordingly. Stop the gamification of literature. Let's have a week of celebrating the finalists and their books instead of an empty show.
Let's not pretend these prizes exist in a vacuum. Why is it that we have writers receiving three or more of these prizes in the same year? What is the point of that? I don't think anyone should win more than twice in a calendar year tbh.
Here I am in 2015, a baby idiot, talking about this. https://www.wheelercentre.com/notes/putting-quarters-in-a-broken-machine-literary-prizes-in-australia
And again in 2018 for the Saturday Paper. https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/topic/2018/02/17/representation-and-diversity/15187860005825
I have never won a book award before and so I was always aware that I'd be coming across as "sour" with these criticisms. I've won a prize now, and guess what, my criticisms are the same. Change the system. There's more to say but I guess I'll write another bloody essay about it.
