To Fogarty and Beyond

The Fogarty Literary Award has been awarded biennially since 2019 to a Western Australian writer aged between 18 and 35. This award has been responsible for launching the careers of some talented emerging writers, including Rebecca Higgie, Michael Burrows, Mel Hall, Georgia Tree and Emma Young. Two writers shortlisted for the 2023 award – Karleah Olson and Josh Kemp – along with 2023 winner, Katherine Allum, will join us for a conversation with 2021 winner and subsequent Fogarty Literary Award judge, Brooke Dunnell. They will be discussing their different pathways to the award, their experiences preparing their manuscripts for submission, and the process of publishing their books – and they will be happy to give aspiring young writers advice on entering book-length manuscript awards.

About the Authors:

Brooke Dunnell

Brooke Dunnell won the 2021 Fogarty Literary Award for the unpublished manuscript of The Glass House, published in 2022 by Fremantle Press. Her latest novel, Last Best Chance, was released in April 2024. An experienced judge of creative writing competitions, including the WA Premier’s Book Awards and the Peter Carey Short Story Award, Brooke was part of the judging panel for the 2023 Fogarty Literary Award alongside editors from Fremantle Press.

Katherine Allum

Katherine Allum is an award-winning fiction author. Her debut novel, The Skeleton House, won the 2023 Fogarty Literary Award. American-born, she grew up in four different states, but has strongest ties to Portland, Oregon and regional southwest Nevada. After spending several years in the UK, where she completed an MA at City, University of London, she now lives in Perth with her husband. She does her best story plotting while swimming.

Josh Kemp

Josh Kemp is an author of Australian gothic and crime fiction. His debut novel, Banjawarn, won the 2021 Dorothy Hewett Award, the 2022 Ned Kelly Award for Best Debut Crime Fiction and the 2023 Western Australian Premier’s Prize for Best Emerging Writer. Jasper Cliff is his second novel. He lives in the South West of Western Australia but finds himself drawn, over and over again, to the red dirt of the state’s north.

Karleah Olson

Karleah Olson is a Perth-based writer and avid reader, and loves to collect books – more than she could possibly read in a lifetime. Karleah has spent the last few years as a PhD candidate at Edith Cowan University, where she is studying Australian Coastal Gothic Literature. Her debut novel, A Wreck of Seabirds, was shortlisted for the 2023 Fogarty Literary Award and is a work of YA fiction inspired by the gothic genre and the West Australian coastal landscape.