The Deborah Cass Prize for Writing brought me three main benefits:

1. Three distinguished judges – Alice Pung, Christos Tsiolkas and Tony Ayres – liked my writing and gave me a dose of courage with which to persevere – courage and perseverance, something every writer needs.
2. The prize money helped take me to San Ginese in Tuscany, the town where the Tales are set, to see again the characters I am writing about in the place where they live. This trip also triggered an emotionally satisfying end to the book, but only after I returned to Australia and had thought about it for a long time.
3. The Deborah Cass Prize also provided a mentor, Antoni Jach, who offered a guiding hand and worked with me at the problem solving that I needed to do.

The Prize has been a rich treasure trove of support for my writing and as it moves into its second year I cannot help but note its strength, with Melanie Cheng, who was shortlisted for the first Deborah Cass Prize, this year winning the Victorian Premier’s Unpublished Manuscript Prize.