‘The most literary small town in Australia’: 10 years for Carey award

AN emotional day was enjoyed on Saturday 13 June when the 10th edition of the Peter Carey Short Story Award was presented.

A five-minute message from two-time Booker Prize winner Carey was a highlight during a day where a tour of Bacchus Marsh’s famous literary sites took place and the winner of the short story prize was announced.

Alison Martin won for her story Under a Damaged Moon, while Oscar Revelins was runner-up with Famous Friend. Both stories will be published by Overland Literary Journal.

The winner of this year’s Best Local Entry Award was Steph Pama with her story MCS and Other Student Maladies.

Co-organiser Wayne Marshall said Carey dubbed his former home during his address “the most literary small town in Australia”.

The Bacchus Marsh Literary History Walk, which took place before the award, put merit to Carey’s claim, visiting sites of former homes of Carey along with Frank Hardy and Joan Lindsay.

“He loves what we’re doing with the award, and he really seems to appreciate us preserving the legacy of his connection to Bacchus Marsh,” Marshall said.

“Saturday was a pretty emotional day, after 10 years of which sort of feels like no time at all but also feels like a long time since we’ve been doing it. It was great reward for all the effort put in.”

Marshall and Jem Tyley-Miller are co-organisers of the award in partnership with Moorabool Libraries and the Moorabool Shire Council.

“In the early days, Jem and I plotted a lot of the award moves during five-minute pick-ups at school where our kids were in the same classes at Bacchus Marsh Primary,” he said.

“It’s grown to be this really big thing. We had 400-plus stories for the main award this year from writers all across Australia.”