The Mother Wound and Girls in Boys’ Cars shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards 2022
The Queensland Literary Awards recognise and celebrate the exceptional literary talents of esteemed and emerging Queensland writers. We are pleased to announce that The Mother Wound by Amani Haydar and Girls in Boys’ Cars by Felicity Castagna have been shortlisted for this year’s awards. For both books, this adds to a growing list of nominations.
As stated on their website, the Queensland Literary Awards celebrate outstanding writers from Queensland and around Australia, across published and unpublished categories. The awards also offer fellowships and development awards for Queensland writers, and emerging Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander writers, Australia-wide.
This is an incredible honour for our authors, and we look forward to the winners being announced on September 8. Register for the live stream here.
About the books
The Mother Wound by Amani Haydar
A magnificent and devastating work of art. There is a raging anger here, and a deep sorrow, but at the core Haydar gives us truths about love. This is one of the most important books I’ve ever read.’ Bri Lee
‘I am from a family of strong women.’
Amani Haydar suffered the unimaginable when she lost her mother in a brutal act of domestic violence perpetrated by her father. Five months pregnant at the time, her own perception of how she wanted to mother (and how she had been mothered) was shaped by this devastating murder.
After her mother’s death, Amani began reassessing everything she knew of her parents’ relationship. They had been unhappy for so long – should she have known that it would end like this? A lawyer by profession, she also saw the holes in the justice system for addressing and combating emotional abuse and coercive control.
Amani also had to reckon with the weight of familial and cultural context. Her parents were brought together in an arranged marriage, her mother thirteen years her father’s junior. Her grandmother was brutally killed in the 2006 war in Lebanon, adding complex layers of intergenerational trauma.
Writing with grace and beauty, Amani has drawn from this a story of female resilience and the role of motherhood in the home and in the world. In The Mother Wound, she uses her own strength to help other survivors find their voices.
Girls in Boys’ Cars by Felicity Castagna
A complicated friendship.
A roadtrip in a stolen car.
The stories that define us.
And two funny, sharp, adventurous young women who refuse to be held back any longer.
Rosa was never really trying to hurt anyone, no matter what they said in court.
But she’s ended up in juvenile jail anyway, living her life through books and wondering why her best mate Asheeka disappeared.
A page-turning novel about a complicated friendship; a road trip through NSW in a stolen car; the stories that define us; and two funny, sharp, adventurous young women who refuse to be held back any longer.