Author nominated for big award

A passion for telling South West stories has put Bunbury author Donna Mazza in the running for a major literary prize.

The Edith Cowan University South West arts program coordinator has been named as a finalist for the Dorothy Hewett Award for an unpublished manuscript.

The prize winner will be announced at the Perth Writers Festival next month, which will run from February 18 to 21.

Dr Mazza said it was a good feeling to be chosen as one of the nine finalists from 136 nominations for her short novel Dark Little Ghost.

“It’s a short novel set in Bunbury and I actually started writing it in 2008 after receiving a grant from the Department of Culture and the Arts, ” she said.

“It incorporates a lot of local landmarks and features ordinary people during extraordinary events.

“It’s set in the mid-2000s following the tornado that went through town and destroyed St Patrick’s Cathedral.”

Dr Mazza said she remembered meeting prominent author Dorothy Hewett as an undergraduate student at ECU.

“She had long, white hair and a big voice and laugh as well as a big presence so it’s an honour to be a finalist for an award named after her, ” she said.

Dr Mazza said she believed it was important for people in the South West to tell their own stories and it was an idea she encouraged in her role at ECU.

“I don’t like it when people who have never lived here write stories about the region, ” she said.