The KYD Unpublished Manuscript Award (2017-2020)
or The Kill Your Darlings Unpublished Manuscript Award ; or Kill Your Darlings Varuna Fellowship
Subcategory of Kill Your Darlings Awards
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History

'This award, which is open to writers of adult fiction and adult non-fiction, will assist an early-career author in the development of their unpublished manuscript. Open to writers who have not had a full-length work published by a commercial publishing house. If you have previously self-published, your entry must be a new, unpublished work. The winner receives $5,000 cash and a mentorship with Kill Your Darlings' Rebecca Starford (non-fiction) or Hannah Kent (fiction). '

Latest Winners / Recipients

Year: 2020

winner y separately published work icon Dirt Town Dirt Creek Hayley Scrivenor , Sydney : Pan Macmillan Australia , 2022 23668015 2022 single work novel crime

'My best friend wore her name, Esther, like a queen wearing her crown at a jaunty angle. We were twelve years old when she went missing.

'On a sweltering Friday afternoon in Durton, best friends Ronnie and Esther leave school together. Esther never makes it home.

'Ronnie's going to find her, she has a plan. Lewis will help. Their friend can't be gone, Ronnie won't believe it.

'Detective Sergeant Sarah Michaels can believe it, she has seen what people are capable of. She knows more than anyone how, in a moment of weakness, a person can be driven to do something they never thought possible.

'Lewis can believe it too. But he can't reveal what he saw that afternoon at the creek without exposing his own secret.

'Five days later, Esther's buried body is discovered.

'What do we owe the girl who isn't there?

'Character-rich and propulsive, with a breathtakingly original use of voice and revolving points of view, Hayley Scrivenor delves under the surface, where no one can hide. With emotional depth and sensitivity, this stunning debut shows us how much each person matters in a community that is at once falling apart and coming together.

'Esther will always be a Dirt Town child, as we are its children, still.' (Publication summary)

as 'The Push Back'.

Year: 2019

winner y separately published work icon Eating with My Mouth Open Sam van Zweden , Sydney : NewSouth Publishing , 2021 21226881 2021 single work autobiography essay

''To eat is to build upon our collective story. We use food to say, again and again, who we are.'

'Eating with My Mouth Open is food writing like you've never seen before: honest, bold, and exceptionally tasty. Sam van Zweden's personal and cultural exploration of food, memory, and hunger revels in body positivity, dissects wellness culture and all its flaws, and shares the joys of being part of a family of chefs.

'Celebrating food and all the bodies it nurtures, Eating with My Mouth Open considers the true meaning of nourishment within the broken food system we live in. Not holding back from difficult conversations about mental illness, weight, and wellbeing, Sam van Zweden advocates for body politics that are empowering, productive, and meaningful.' (Publication summary)

Year: 2018

winner Little Did I Know Nicole McAlinden , 2018 extract novel
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings [Online] , June 2018;

'Fliss’ life in Green Brook is quiet and safe – the government’s No Second Chances crackdown on crime doesn’t really affect her small farming town. That is until the shock arrival of a young man on the run, who knows her secret. Albey is the child Fliss illegally terminated two decades before, implanted into female prisoners in the remote and forgotten West Australian mining town of Barren Creek. Not knowing who to trust and with Albey’s captors on their tail, Fliss flees Green Brook and follows Albey to Barren Creek, where she uncovers the startling truth behind the detention and exploitation of both women and unborns, risking her own freedom in the process.'  (Introduction)

Year: 2017

winner y separately published work icon Permafrost S. J. Norman , St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2021 21864698 2021 selected work short story

'This brilliant collection of short fiction explores the shifting spaces of desire, loss and longing. Inverting and queering the gothic and romantic traditions, each story represents a different take on the concept of a haunting or the haunted. Though it ranges across themes and locations – from small-town Australia to Hokkaido to rural England – Permafrost is united by the power of the narratorial voice, with its auto-fictional resonances, dark wit and swagger.

'Whether recounting the confusion of a child trying to decipher their father and stepmother’s new relationship, the surrealness of an after-hours tour of Auschwitz, or a journey to wintry Japan to reconnect with a former lover, Permafrost unsettles, transports and impresses in equal measure.' (Publication summary)

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