Williamstown Literary Festival

The Williamstown Literary Festival has run the Ada Cambridge Prize for biographical short story writing since 2004, in honour of one of Williamstown's most famous daughters.

Ada Cambridge was a prolific Victorian novelist and diarist. A vicar's wife, she followed her husband around various postings in country Victoria , finishing up at Holy Trinity Anglican parish in Williamstown. In 1903 she wrote what is probably her best-remembered work, 'Thirty Years In Australia', a catalogue of her busy life as a vicar's wife and the many hardships she endured in the remote bush and a seaside town of a distant land. Her writings explored controversial subjects of the day such as unhappy marriages, bigamy, divorce, and euthanasia.

Known as "the doyenne of Australian writers" during the height of her popularity, by the 1940s she was largely forgotten and unfairly dismissed as "a frail clergyman's wife writing (genteel) romantic fiction of dubious value". Rather, Cambridge was a woman of great resourcefulness, zest and courage, who insisted that people should think for themselves.

The prize is named in honour of her achievement. Each year, the winner is announced at the opening of the festival, and the short list of stories will be available as a booklet.

Entries for the 2011 Prize close at 5pm, on Friday 25th Feb 2011.

Download entry form and conditions.