Two Pan Macmillan books shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards 2022
We are thrilled to announce that The Mother Wound by Amani Haydar and Girls in Boys’ Cars by Felicity Castagna have been shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards 2022! The Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards were inaugurated by the Victorian Government in 1985 to honour literary achievement by Australian writers. The awards are administered by the Wheeler Centre on behalf of the Premier of Victoria.
The winners for each category will be annouced at an awards ceremony on 3 February 2022. You can read more about the award and the nominees here.
The Mother Wound
The Mother Wound, Amani Haydar’s debut book, has been shortlisted for the Non-Fiction category. This is an incredible achievement for Amani, with The Mother Wound also currently longlisted for the 2021 Walkley Book Award.
About the book
‘I am from a family of strong women.’
Amani Haydar suffered the unimaginable when she lost her mother in a brutal act of domestic violence perpetrated by her father. Five months pregnant at the time, her own perception of how she wanted to mother (and how she had been mothered) was shaped by this devastating murder.
After her mother’s death, Amani began reassessing everything she knew of her parents’ relationship. They had been unhappy for so long – should she have known that it would end like this? A lawyer by profession, she also saw the holes in the justice system for addressing and combating emotional abuse and coercive control.
Amani also had to reckon with the weight of familial and cultural context. Her parents were brought together in an arranged marriage, her mother thirteen years her father’s junior. Her grandmother was brutally killed in the 2006 war in Lebanon, adding complex layers of intergenerational trauma.
Writing with grace and beauty, Amani has drawn from this a story of female resilience and the role of motherhood in the home and in the world. In The Mother Wound, she uses her own strength to help other survivors find their voices.
Girls in Boys’ Cars
Girls in Boys’ Cars has been shortlisted for the Writing for Young Adults category, one of only three books on the list this year.
About the book
A complicated friendship.
A roadtrip in a stolen car.
The stories that define us.
And two funny, sharp, adventurous young women who refuse to be held back any longer.
Rosa was never really trying to hurt anyone, no matter what they said in court.
But she’s ended up in juvenile jail anyway, living her life through books and wondering why her best mate Asheeka disappeared.
A page-turning novel about a complicated friendship; a road trip through NSW in a stolen car; the stories that define us; and two funny, sharp, adventurous young women who refuse to be held back any longer.