'The author has that special quality which just jumps off the page. The voice is strong and the sense of place so powerful.'
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Shortlisting
The Alice Award
'I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.' The first time I heard these words - Wordsworth's - they were being recited in the distinctive, precise, gravelly and British tones of the writer Margaret Scott. I was sixteen years old, in a tutorial room at the University of Tasmania, and entirely unaware that Dr Scott would be a beacon to me throughout my life. In 2021, my alter ego, Minnie Darke, was honoured to be awarded the Margaret Scott People's Choice Award in the Tasmanian Literary Awards. Now, in 2024, the Society of Women Writers Tasmania, has nominated me to represent the island state in the 'Alice Award', which is bestowed every second year on an Australian woman writer; the only Tasmanian to have been awarded an 'Alice' was ... Margaret Scott, in 2004. Since its inception in 1978, the 'Alice' has been awarded to twenty-two writers judged to have made 'a distinguished, long-term contribution to Australian literature'. In November, I'll travel to Perth, Western Australia for the announcement of the 2024 'Alice', and I thank the Society of Women Writers Tasmania for their generous nomination.
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Mothers GrimmA sly, cheeky and blackly comic quartet of long stories with fairytale motifs stitched into their seams. This catalogue of mothering, heartache, heartbreak, desire, love and death brings the mothers of the Brothers Grimm into the here and now.
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Housewife Superstar: the very best of Marjorie BlighThe true story of Tasmania's most famous domestic goddess, and the woman rumoured to have been the inspiration behind Dame Edna Everage. Shortlisted for the 2012 Waverley Library Nib Award for excellence in research.
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Rosie Little's Cautionary Tales for GirlsA charming and thoroughly modern-day Scheherazade, Rosie shares with us her piquant and engaging views on life and love, marriage and mating, desire and destiny as she tackles the sometimes thorny business of making her way through life.
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The Alphabet of Light and DarkMelding personal, family and colonial history, Wood's evocative and lyrical prose explores the past and place, searching and belonging, love, loss and grief. The Alphabet of Light and Dark is more than an historical novel; it's a novel about history. Winner of the Australian/Vogel's Literary Award 2002.
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Deep South: Stories from TasmaniaSpanning two centuries of writing, this collection brings together the finest stories about Tasmania. Twenty-four diverse and fascinating short works showcase the island’s colonial past, its darkness and humour, and the unique beauty and savagery of its landscape.
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Island Story: Tasmania in Object and Text‘[Island Story] is like a carefully curated exhibition, designed to stimulate and provoke…There is so much of interest here…A satisfying feast of Tasmaniana.’ The Mercury
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Prose Poems from the Maritime Museum (Island 164)A selection of writing from Danielle's Maritime Museum of Tasmania residency has been published in Island 164. Several of the poems and prose poems are illustrated by images of textile works that were the surprise creative output of the residency.
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'The Tale of Lake Pedder'Are reasons of human emotion and sentiment a sufficient basis on which to argue for the restoration of Tasmania's long-lost Lake Pedder? In this essay, published in the Tasmanian Land Conservancy's exquisite anthology Breathing Space, Danielle debates this question with herself.
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water[shed]The essay 'Beyond Reason' is included in this exquisite art book which showcases the work of fifty artists from lutruwita (Tasmania) and across the world, who contributed to the water[shed] exhibition of August 2022. In 1972, Lake Pedder was drowned as part of a hydro-electric power scheme. Now that fifty years have passed, and we have embarked upon the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-30), we hope to see the political tide turn at last, and for the recovery of Lake Pedder begin.
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'All Kinds of Fur' (South of the Sun)A particularly nasty little story based on the Grimm brothers' tale of the same name, 'All Kinds of Fur' was published in South of the Sun alongside a beautiful illustration by Sarah Hart.
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'The Good Mother' (Inviting Interruptions)Originally the prologue to Rosie Little's Cautionary Tales for Girls, this cheeky rant has been included in an international anthology Inviting Interruptions: Wonder Tales in the Twenty-First Century.
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'relinquish' (Hecate 45.1&2)A prose poem for mothers and daughters, published in the feminist literary journal, Hecate.
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'Apple Suite' (Island 161)Inspired by the photographic collection housed in the supper room of the Glen Huon Hall, 'Apple Suite' is series of monologues telling stories from a once-prosperous fruit-growing district.
The King, the Queen and Uncle Jimmy
Out of the mouths of babes
Fence-sitting on the Great Stadium Debate
In the winter of 1972, Lake Pedder drowned. A jewel of Tasmania's southwest wilderness, the lake – along with its iconic pink sand beach – was inundated as part of a hydro-electric scheme. The fight to save the lake attracted worldwide attention and gave rise to the first green political party in the world. Danielle's current project, 'Pink Sand', is a novel-in-progress exploring the human history of Lake Pedder – a place that lives on in the hearts and minds of those who were fortunate enough to see it, and those who can only imagine its beauty. (Picture credit: Don Weston)
