In honour of historical novelist, Elizabeth Jane Corbett, the HNSA is offering the chance for a previously unpublished author from Australia or New Zealand to receive a mentorship from Wendy J Dunn to develop a completed first draft of an unpublished historical fiction manuscript for young adults.
key dates
Submissions open: 6 November 2024
Submissions close: 4 December 2024 at 5pm
Winner announced: 12 February 2025
heads up! polish your manuscript now!
More contest information will be available in the coming months. Entrants will be required to submit a 500 word synopsis together with the first 10,000 of the manuscript. At least one draft of the entire manuscript must have been completed at the time of entry.
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about the mentorship
The winner of the Mentorship will receive five mentoring sessions at times to be arranged between the winner and tutor. Wendy J Dunn will read and assess the novel in its entirety, then meet with the mentee via Zoom, initially for 1-2 hours, to discuss the winner’s inspiration and goals, and to identify ‘roadblocks’ requiring Wendy’s assistance. Wendy will provide in-depth feedback on plot, characterisation, pacing, dialogue, world building and effective use of research. A flash drive will be provided setting out her comments and notes. Four further one hour sessions will then be arranged to track process and provide encouragement and support.
our mentor
Dr Wendy J Dunn is an award-winning Australian author, playwright and poet. She is the author of two Anne Boleyn novels: Dear Heart, How Like You This?, The Light in the Labyrinth, her first young adult novel, and two Katherine of Aragon novels, Falling Pomegranate Seeds: The Duty of Daughters and Falling Pomegranate Seeds: All Manner of Things. Her firstmajor nonfiction work, Henry VIII’s True Daughter: Catherine Carey, a Tudor Life, was published by Pen & Sword books in 2023. They have now commissioned Wendy to write a second nonfiction work.
A respected and longtime member of the Tudor writing community, Wendy was the Founding Editor of Backstory and Other Terrain, two academic writing journals belonging to Swinburne University. Wendy is a sessional tutor for the university, receiving the Swinburne University Postgraduate Research Award. Wendy still manages Other Terrain.
Wendy mentored Alison Stegert, the winner of the 2020 EJ Corbett Mentorship contest. Alison’s manuscript The Remarkables went on to win the 2021 Times / Chicken House / IET 150 manuscript prize. The novel was published as Her Majesty’s League of Remarkable Young Ladies in 2023.
definition of historical fiction
- A novel written at least 50 years after the events described with the majority set in the historical period
- Historical sub-genres considered to be historical fiction include historical mystery, historical romance, and historical fantasy. Alternate history, time-slip novels, multiple-time period novels, and parallel narrative novels are also considered historical fiction with flexibility to crossover between eras stretching from 50 years or more in the past until contemporary times provided more than 50% of the narrative is set more than 50 years in the past.
- For the purposes of this contest, ‘young adult fiction’ is a novel written for a readership age group between 12-18 years old.
our judge
Rachel Nightingale is an author, award-winning playwright, educator and actor. With a passion for storytelling and the theatre, it was only natural that her first fantasy series, the Tales of Tarya trilogy, would centre on both. She has also co-authored Mandala: Journeys Within the Circle, with artist Karen Scott, and Raluana Lane, a historical fiction novel about the invasion of Rabaul (Papua New Guinea) during WW2. An award winning playwright, her plays have been performed in Australia, New Zealand and Manila. Having survived improv theatre, travelled the world and immersed herself endlessly in research and creative practice, she often finds herself at the mercy of stories that demand to be written. She lives in regional Australia with her family and a very bossy cat.
about elizabeth jane corbett
Elizabeth Jane Corbett sadly passed away in January 2020. She was a talented author, dedicated member of the HNSA Committee, reviewer for the international Historical Novels Review, and a mainstay of our historical fiction community. She had a great love of Wales, and learned the Welsh language in order to research her books fully. Her debut young adult historical novel, The Tides Between, was named a Children’s Book Council of Australia Notable Book for older readers. Liz described the book as ‘an historical coming-of-age novel about fairy tales and facing the truth. It explores themes of loss, trauma, and the power of myth.’
When Elizabeth Jane wasn’t writing, she worked as a librarian, and taught Welsh at the Melbourne Welsh Church. In 2009, her short-story, Beyond the Blackout Curtain, won the Bristol Short Story Prize. Another, Silent Night, was short listed for the Allan Marshall Short Story Award. She died suddenly in her beloved Wales at Stiwdio Maelor on a research trip for her next novel about the wife of Owain Glyn Dŵr – the last native Welshman to hold the title Prince of Wales.
Liz liked red shoes, dark chocolate, commuter cycling, and reading quirky, character driven novels set once-upon-a-time in lands far away.
Her advice to aspiring authors was: ‘It will be hard work and you may have to wrestle with confusion and self-doubt (even after you’ve won prizes and been published). So, focus on the journey and learning your craft. And remember, writing is the real magic.’
The HNSA Committee hopes the mentorship will keep the memory of Elizabeth Jane Corbett alive while providing the opportunity for an aspiring author to walk in her red shoes in writing a successful historical novel for young adults.
