Nature Writing Prize shortlist announcement

Thank you to everyone who submitted to the Nature Writing Prize, run in collaboration with Fullers Bookshop and the Tasmanian Land Conservancy. 

Entries were judged 'blind' by Island’s Editorial Manager, Jane Rawson, along with Ben Walter and Ted Lefroy. From a field of nearly 200 entries, the judges have selected a shortlist of three pieces, from which the winner will be chosen.

Congratulations to the shortlisted authors (in alphabetical order by surname):

• Frankey Chung-Kok-Lun for ‘Menura novahollandiae’

• Rosalee Kiely for ‘Habitat’

• Bridget Webster for ‘Like all good fruit’

The winner will be announced next month, with their piece published in Island 176, due out in December and the other shortlisted works will be published via Island Online in November. The winner will also receive a week-long residency at the TLC’s Sloping Main Reserve, on the Tasman Peninsula.

Meet the authors

Frankey Chung-Kok-Lun

Frankey is a writer raised between Naarm and Mauritius. He enjoys exploring how storytelling can deepen our entanglement with nature, focussing on non-human perspectives, from birds and trees to tables and rubbish bins. His essays, poetry, and short fiction have been published across various online journals, podcasts, and print publications.

Rosalee Kiely

Rosalee is a non-fiction writer and the author of Creature (2019), a debut poetry collection published by Ginninderra Press. She has a Master of Journalism and lives in Melbourne.

Bridget Webster

Bridget is a writer and theatremaker living on unceded Wurundjeri Country. She has been shortlisted for Overland's Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize, longlisted for Frontier Poetry's Nature and Place Prize and awarded an Emerging Poet Prize by Liquid Amber Press. Their work has been featured in Meanjin, Island, Jacaranda, Liquid Amber Press anthologies, and elsewhere.