ASA/HQ Commercial Fiction Prize (2020-)
Subcategory of Awards Australian Awards
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

History

Inaugurated in 2020, this is a prize for an unpublished manuscript of Australian commerical fiction. The winner receives a book contract with HQ: the runner up receives website support and an online-presence audit.

The prize was first awarded in 2020, and not awarded in 2021.

Latest Winners / Recipients

Year: 2024

winner Kathleen Hastings for 'Hendrickje, Rembrandt’s Bathsheba'

Year: 2022

winner y separately published work icon Untethered Ayesha Inoon , Sydney : HQ Fiction , 2023 25772089 2023 single work novel

'Zia secretly longs to go to university but as a young woman in a traditional Muslim family, she does what is expected of her and agrees to an arranged marriage to Rashid, a man she barely knows. Cocooned by the wealth and customs of her family, Rashid's dark moods create only the smallest of ripples in their early life together.

'When growing political unrest spurs them to leave Sri Lanka and immigrate to Australia, Zia is torn between fear of leaving her beloved family and the possibility of new freedoms. While on paper their new country welcomes them with open arms, their visas come with many restrictions and for the first time Zia faces isolation, poverty and an increasingly unstable marriage that forms a cage stronger than any she's known before.

'Determined to carve a place for herself in this new country, Zia sets out on uncertain terrain and discovers friendship, devastating loss and hope for a different future. One that asks her to consider not just who she is, but who she might become.

'Partially drawn from her own experiences, debut author Ayesha Inoon's novel weaves the threads of family, culture and tradition together with the uncertainty and freedom of starting anew to create a complex tapestry of identity, resilience and hope.' (Publication summary)

Ayesha Inoon

Year: 2020

inaugural winner y separately published work icon Brunswick Street Blues Sally Bothroyd , Chatswood : HQ Fiction , 2022 23594516 2022 single work novel mystery

'Brick Brown has problems: she hates her day job, and her beloved Uncle Baz has gone missing.

'Although a bartender by trade, Brick Brown has finagled herself a job on the city council to investigate a complaint that threatens to close her uncle's well-loved blues club in the heart of Melbourne.

'Brick suspects something strange is going on, but when her amateur sleuthing uncovers the mayor's dead body in a locked room, she's dragged into the dangerous world of dodgy developers with the reluctant help of Mitch Mitchell, a prickly war correspondent turned investigative journalist.

'Relying on her street smarts and an unlikely band of allies, Brick and Mitchell unearth corruption that runs deeper than just local government, and the stakes are higher than they banked on. And when Brick also discovers some terrifying information about her past, the stakes turn deadly...' (Publication summary) 

X