Press Room

HarperCollins Publishers announces the winner of the 2023 Banjo Prize for Fiction

HarperCollins Publishers Australia is delighted to announce that the winner of the 2023 Banjo Prize is Stefanie Koens for her unpublished manuscript Islands of Secrets.

A woman searching for answers in her own life finds them – and much more – in the wreckage and haunting stories of the Batavia shipwreck.

Shortly before Christmas in 2018, schoolteacher Tess McCarthy flies to Western Australia’s remote Abrolhos Islands in search of answers – both to the infamous Batavia shipwreck and her personal family crises. In 1628, Saskia, a young Dutchwoman, boards Batavia with her family, bound for a new life in the East Indies – only for her world to first collide with Aris Jansz, the ship’s reluctant under surgeon.

Tess, Saskia and Aris carry the baggage of past losses and the uncertainty of their futures. And, in the most unlikely circumstances, they find qualities that span centuries: faith, acceptance, and love.

Anna Valdinger, Fiction Publisher at HarperCollins, says: ‘As always, it is a challenge to choose just one winner out of such a top-notch shortlist. But Stefanie’s novel impressed us all with its skillful blend of contemporary and historical storylines, strong writing and a powerful evocation of this fascinating slice of Australia’s past. This is compelling, moving historical fiction in the vein of Natasha Lester and Kayte Nunn and I’m so excited to share it with readers.’

Stefanie Koens says: ‘As a child I was fascinated by a Batavia picture book on our family bookshelf, and many years later I realised I wanted to tell stories of the lesser-known characters, particularly some of the women. It was a dream come true, receiving that call from HarperCollins, and I’m very thankful for Anna’s enthusiasm. I can’t wait to share this story of Western Australia in the seventeenth century, of family secrets interweaving past and present within the incredible tale of the Batavia shipwreck.’

HarperCollins has also announced four runners-up who will each receive a written assessment of their manuscript from HarperCollins: Lou and I by Anna Fursland, The Shores Between by A’Mhara McKey, The Sister Tree by Natasha Neary and Katherine Papadakis is Figuring Things Out by Christina Pontos. The judges were deeply impressed by all four novels.

HarperCollins Publishers Australia launched the annual Banjo Prize for Australian fiction writers in 2018 in a quest to find Australia’s next great storyteller. Applicants are required to submit a full manuscript of adult commercial fiction, a 500-word synopsis and a 200-word biographical statement. Entries for next year’s prize will open in March 2024.

For more information please visit: www.harpercollins.com.au/thebanjoprize

About HarperCollins

HarperCollins Publishers is the second largest consumer book publisher in the world, with operations in 18 countries. With nearly two hundred years of history and more than 120 branded imprints around the world, HarperCollins publishes approximately 10,000 new books every year, in over 30 languages, and has a print and digital catalogue of more than 200,000 titles. Writing across dozens of genres, HarperCollins authors include winners of the Miles Franklin Award, the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and the Man Booker Prize.