Just a quickie because I am on the fly, but just had to share the news that Jock Serong has won the inaugural (UK) Staunch prize for a thriller that doesn’t feature violence against women.
A thriller in which a group of Australian surfers and a boat carrying refugees are caught in a storm off Indonesia has won the inaugural Staunch prize, which goes to a thriller “in which no woman is beaten, stalked, sexually exploited, raped or murdered”.
A reaction to the prevalence of violence against women in fiction, the £2,000 award went to Australian author Jock Serong for his third novel, On the Java Ridge. Taking on Australia’s refugee policy, the thriller sees a group Australians on holiday in Indonesia rescue shipwrecked refugees from stormy waters.
Read more about it here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/nov/26/award-for-thriller-without-violence-against-women-goes-to-jock-serong-staunch-prize-on-the-java-ridge
LIVING THE DREAM 