Hobart author Katherine Johnson has released her prize-winning novel after beating more than 500 manuscripts to win the inaugural Australian Fiction Prize, with a national tour now underway.
The book, published this week by HarperCollins, is set on Tasmania’s Maria Island and weaves together themes of secrets, survival and the healing power of nature.
Johnson, who works part-time at the University of Tasmania, said getting the call to be told she had won such a big literary prize in late 2024 still shocked her to think about.
“I was completely surprised. I didn’t expect to be shortlisted or to win,” she said.
“I remember actually getting the call and I’d just stepped out of the car and it was raining.”
“I heard Catherine Milne’s voice, and she’s the head of fiction at HarperCollins, and I just couldn’t quite believe it.”
Johnson described the prize as a breakthrough after two decades of writing.
“This award will hopefully help me reach new readers, which is really exciting,” she said.
The novel follows 18-year-old Min, trapped under the control of her overbearing father, and Lucie, an Australian journalist who returns from London to research a Tasmanian devil conservation program.
Johnson, who trained in both biology and journalism, spent five years writing the book.
“My daughter was Min’s age when I started writing this book five years ago, so I was surrounded by the different decisions parents make around care and control and got thinking about what happens when control goes too far and a young person is not allowed normal freedoms,” she said.
Maria Island holds a deep personal connection for Johnson, whose family visited every Easter for her husband’s university marine science field trips.
“I saw first-hand the awe of students encountering the wonders of nature,” she said.
Caroline Overington, literary editor of The Australian and a prize judge, said she “was enchanted by Katherine’s main character, Min, a girl with a wild spirit, from the first few pages.”
Catherine Milne from HarperCollins said the novel was “a sweeping, beautiful and emotional novel of the struggle between independence and control, nature, love and courage.”
Johnson’s national tour kicks off on Friday with stops at the Sunshine Coast Hinterland Writers Festival and a Brisbane bookshop event.
She’ll return for Tasmanian launches in Burnie, Devonport, Launceston and Hobart between May 7 and 12.
The tour has been partly supported by the Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund and Arts Tasmania.
