‘We Didn’t Think It Through’ won the Marion Writers ACT literary award for fiction for older readers!

I’m truly humbled whenever someone gives me praise or any kind of positive feedback, so it absolutely blew my mind to receive this award! I never really know how to respond to praise or recognition, but I am extremely grateful to the judges for loving my book and so grateful to all who took the time to read it.

This book took a lot of hard work - easily the most effort I’ve had to put into anything before. The book is also the product of many helping hands along the way, particularly my publisher, Jodie Webster at Allen & Unwin, and my editor, Sophie Splatt. I also found the heart of my story during a week at the Varuna Writers House in Katoomba (I’d highly recommend a visit for any aspiring or established writers out there). The magic of the place gave this story something it didn’t have before: love.

And now, five years since I started writing it, ‘We Didn’t Think It Through’ has won an award.

Writing is such a solitary, private thing for me, as it is for many writers. In your writing, you manifest your feelings, your hopes, your fears, your desires, your anger - parts of yourself that people don’t see when they shake your hand and say hello to you - and you commit them to words in a way that hopefully resonates with other people. To send that writing out into the world to be consumed by strangers, and to be understood in ways you never realised it could be, is something special. It’s like once the story meets the world, it no longer belongs to its creator but to those who see something inside the lines on the page that speaks to them, that speaks to something inside them. That’s why books are so special. I write for myself, first and foremost, but there comes a time when I am done with my creation and I must move on. After it is finished with me also, it belongs to the readers.

I sincerely want to thank all my readers for giving my book a life that extends beyond my time with it, and express my deepest gratitude to Marion Writers for the honour of this award.