Not a lot is known about Kathleen Mitchell, except she was a pharmacist and that she stated in her will a desire to encourage “the advancement, improvement and betterment of Australian literature, to improve the educational style of the authors, and to provide them with additional amounts and thus enable them to improve their literary efforts.”
Kathleen’s gift to young writers is the biennial Kathleen Adele Mitchell literary award established in 1996, the award of $15,000 aims to act as an incentive to hone young writers literary skills and offers encouragement to persist in their passion and dedication to the advancement of Australian literature.
The award is presented to a young Australian author aged 29 or less at the time of their books first publication, the trust company will announce the winner in June.
John Aitkin COE of the Trust company said the Trust company is very pleased to be part of the Kathleen Mitchell award.
“As trustee of the award, it’s encouraging to see the growth occurring in entry volume and a privilege to be as closely involved with recipients as they develop their talents,” Mr. Aitkin added.
Previous winners of the award are Randa Abdel-Fattah, Ten things I hate about me (2008), Markus Zusak, The Book Thief (2006), Lucy Lehmann, The Showgirl and the Brumby (2004), Julia Leigh, The Hunter (2000), James Bradley, Wrack (1998), Sonya Hartnett, Sleeping Dogs (1996), the 2010 winner was Nam Lee, for his critically acclaimed book the Boat, written as a collection of short stories it has been translated into thirteen languages and the stories broadly anthologised.
So who is going to be the next beneficiary of the Kathleen Mitchell award, could it be you?
For information on applying for the 2012 award see the Trust company website:
http://www.thetrustcompany.com.au/philanthropy/awards/kathleen_mitchell.asp
