Armidale finalist in international writing contest

June 22, 2007

A PhD researcher and full-time employee at the University of New England, Bronwyn Clarke, is one of two Australians who are finalists in the annual Romance Writers of America "Golden Heart" contest. The competition honours the best unpublished manuscripts in the romance genre.

Romance Writers of America (RWA) is a 9,500-member professional trade association representing the largest fiction genre – romance – and its $1.2 billion industry. Despite its prominence, Ms Clarke said, the genre does not receive the respect it deserves.

"A lot of people hear 'romance' and think of just Barbara Cartland or ill-informed stereotypes held by those who haven't read a contemporary romance novel," she said. "It's a little scary, coming out and saying 'Hey, I'm a romance writer'. However, recent academic scholarship is challenging those myths, and recognising romance as a very rich and diverse genre. My colleagues here at UNE and my PhD supervisors have been very supportive." For her PhD, Ms Clarke (pictured here) is examining online communities of romance readers and writers, and their perspectives on the genre.

Nearly 1,100 manuscripts were entered by aspiring writers in the 10-category "Golden Heart" contest. The first round of judging narrowed the field down to nearly 70 finalists, including eight finalists in Ms Clarke's category, "Romantic Suspense".

"When I found out that I was a finalist I was very excited," she explained, "but I found out on the morning of my very first PhD seminar, so I was also quite distracted. It's only now sinking in. When I finished my novel late last year, I'd been writing it – on and off – for four years."

Being named a finalist means a possible fast track to becoming a prominent, published author. "The finalists in each category go for judging to senior editors at three different publishing houses in the United States," Ms Clarke said. "Close to 40 per cent of finalists get published within about a year. I am currently seeking a US agent to represent my novel."

The 2007 "Golden Heart" winners will be announced during a "black tie" awards ceremony at RWA’s 27th Annual Conference, to be held from the 11th to the 14th of July in Dallas, Texas. Ms Clarke will be attending both the conference and the awards night.

She faced a challenging workload while finishing the novel. "I work full-time at UNE's Teaching and Learning Centre, and I'm doing my PhD part-time," she said. "I made many sacrifices in my life to get the manuscript of Falling into Darkness finished."

Falling into Darkness is a gritty romantic suspense novel, in which two detectives search for a child abducted from a traumatised town on the edge of the outback. They have only days to find the girl alive, but they have few clues, a town full of suspects, and a vast wilderness to search. "While the town and its characters are purely fictional, the setting is inspired by the landscape of the Pilliga region," Ms Clarke said. "I love regional and outback Australia, and exploring the combination of the emotion of a romance and the intensity of a suspense plot with the drama of the Australian landscape."

Posted by Jim Scanlan at June 22, 2007 04:59 PM