$100,000 Historical Novel Prize: Australia’s top richest literary award declared a tie between Tasma Walton and Robbie Arnott

The judges for this year’s Historical Novel Prize were so taken with two of the shortlistees that they have awarded joint winners: Robbie Arnott for his novel Dusk and actor and author Tasma Walton for her novel I Am Nannertgarrook .

The richest single genre literary prize in Australasia awards $100,000 to an adult novel, and this year the money will be split between Walton and Arnott.

Walton’s novel draws on the story of her great-great-great grandmother. Credit: Frances Andrijich

Walton, whose novel tells a fictionalised account of the life of her great-great-great-grandmother, Nannertgarrook, said the award was “a very, very pleasant shock”.

She said she had spent “many, many years” researching I Am Nannertgarook, trawling through colonial records and diaries and speaking