Express Media and Scribe Publications are thrilled to announce the 2018 Scribe Nonfiction Prize for Young Writers has been awarded to Zowie Douglas-Kinghorn.

Douglas-Kinghorn said, ‘I am privileged to be awarded the Scribe Nonfiction Prize for ‘The Invisible Sea’, my story about climate, loss and underground hope. The Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network are fighting on the front lines for climate justice, so I will be donating $2000 of the prize money to Seed.’

Douglas-Kinghorn’s ‘The Invisible Sea’ impressed the judges with its ‘effortless interweaving of the impersonal and deeply intimate vein of  world water politics– underscoring their indivisibility. An intelligent and pressing piece of writing,’ said Myfanwy Jones, Editor and Project Manager at Scribe.

Scribe Founder and Publisher Henry Rosenbloom said ‘The Invisible Sea’ is ‘a marvellous example of empathetic investigative journalism. Wide-ranging and well informed, it deals with the alarming effects of global warming and the coal-seam-gas industry on Australia’s invisible sea — the Great Artesian Basin.’

Douglas-Kinghorn wins $3000 and an editorial mentorship with Scribe to develop her work.

Georgia Phillips was highly commended for her piece ‘Holocene: A Short Story’, an impressive work of creative non-fiction — a coming-of-age memoir that reads like fiction.

The prize was announced at the drinks ahead of the opening of the Word For Word National Nonfiction Festival in Geelong on Friday 16 November, with Zowie reading an excerpt of ‘The Invisible Sea’ at the official opening night ahead of Helen Garner’s in conversation with Maria Takolander. Earlier in the day, the nine shortlisted writers learnt from masterful writers Briohny Doyle and Tresa LeClerc in a day of professional development.

We congratulate Zowie and Georgia and look forward to seeing their literary careers develop.