4 November 2016: Miles Franklin award-winning novel The White Earth will be announced as the 2017 University of Canberra Book of the Year today.
The UC Book Project provides a novel to all commencing students and staff at the University. Now in its fifth year, it encourages students to engage with each other irrespective of their course or background and inspires staff to draw on the book’s themes within their curriculum.
The White Earth by Melbourne-based author Andrew McGahan is a haunting and cautionary tale set on the Darling Downs in southern Queensland in the early 1990s. It tells the story of young William, an only child and unwell, whose father dies in a farming accident. The boy is then sent with his mother, who is plagued by demons of her own, to live with an embittered great-uncle who lives in the ruins of a once-great station homestead and who dreams of glories lost.
Mr McGahan said he was delighted that The White Earth had been chosen as the 2017 UC Book of the Year.
“Although six other novels have come and gone in the 12 years since The White Earth was first published, I still remember it as one of the hardest of my books to write, taking several years and two quite different attempts to complete. It’s a very pleasant surprise and a thrill to think that it will be picked up and enjoyed by a new group of readers,” he said.
Growing up near the town of Dalby on the Darling Downs, Mr McGahan said he was always going to write about that landscape one day, adding that in various ways, his childhood reflects William’s.
“I too grew up on a wheat farm and my father’s harvester was once spectacularly destroyed by fire, as occurs in the opening scene of the novel; I had the same unpleasant ear disease William has in the book and, as in the novel, there was a mysterious old mansion near our family farm,” he said.
“But that’s not to say the book is autobiographical. I’m no only child, but the ninth of ten children to happy and loving parents, and the mansion nearby was not a crumbling wreck inhabited by a deranged old man and haunted by ghosts.”
The White Earth is the fourth of Mr McGahan’s novels and won the 2005 Miles Franklin Literary Award, the regional Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, The Age Book of the Year award, and The Courier Mail Book of the Year Award.
The novelwas chosen as the 2017 UC Book of the Year by a panel of experts including award-winning Australian novelist Marion Halligan, University of Canberra distinguished professor Jen Webb, student Mallory Bugeja, University librarian Helen Taylor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) Professor Nick Klomp, who envisaged the UC Book Project.
“The White Earth is a disturbing, yet powerful and thrilling tale that deals with family, dark secrets and the history of white settlement in Queensland. The themes of identity, place and belonging are all topics that will resonate with our students, and are still relevant and important issues a decade after the book was first published,” Professor Klomp said. “For staff, the novel will offer great conversation starters and a range of material to include in their teaching.
“We are delighted to be giving this book to all commencing students and staff, and we hope it triggers interesting discussions throughout the year,” he said. “The UC Book Project offers another point of difference for students who choose to study at the University of Canberra.”
Former winners of the UC Book of the Year include Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey, Room by Emma Donoghue, The Rosie Project by Graham Simsion and The Strays by Emily Bitto.
- Mr McGahan and Professor Klomp are available for interview
WHAT: Announcement of 2017 UC Book of the Year
WHEN: Friday 4 November, 10:00am – 11:00am
WHERE: Refectory, Building 1, University of Canberra (campus map)
Contact the University of Canberra media team:
Amanda Jones: 0409 140 415
Claudia Doman: 0408 826 362