Baum wins 2015 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship

Caroline Baum has won the 2015 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship.

Baum, a freelance journalist, broadcaster and editorial director of Booktopia, was announced as the winner at the Adelaide Writers Festival on 4 March. Writers Victoria said in a statement that Baum will use the $10,000 fellowship to write a biography of Lucie Dreyfus, the wife of Alfred Dreyfus, who was falsely charged with treason in the late 19th century.

Baum said her project ‘seeks to restore Lucie Dreyfus to her rightful place in history’. As part of her research, Baum will translate the letters between Lucie and her imprisoned husband into English.

‘Caroline Baum’s proposed biography of Lucie Dreyfus is ambitious in scope, international in reach and blazingly original,’ said Janine Burke, one of the judges for the fellowship. ‘This is an untold tale. And what a tale!’

Baum’s project was selected from a shortlist of eight that included projects by Biff Ward, Ann-Marie Priest, Ronnie Scott, Lyn Gallacher, Patrick Allington, Naomi Parry and Barry Divola. The prize was judged by Burke, Jim Davidson, Lynn Buchanan and Della Rowley.

The Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship was established in 2011 by the Hazel Rowley Literary Fund and Writers Victoria to encourage Australian authors to attain a high standard of biography writing and to commemorate the life, ideas and writing of Hazel Rowley, who died in 2011. Last year’s winner was Maxine Beneba Clarke.

For more information about the Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship, visit the Writers Victoria website here.