So the news of the day, for me, for me, while others die under the rubble in Haiti, is that I have got exactly what I wanted. I have got the Penguin/Varuna scholarship. The answer was yes! The answer was yes!

Note added 28/1/10

So what does it mean? Okay, I get $5000 and time with a Penguin editor to go over the manuscript. Here’s what Ben Ball emailed to Peter Bishop:

“We have, after much consideration, decided that this year’s winner should be Tracy Sorensen’s The Lucky Galah. While the quality of all of the manuscripts this year was certainly high, it was the lyricism and imagination that Tracy demonstrated that truly impressed us. The characters here are well-drawn and insightful, and some of the small details that Tracy incorporated were wonderful.”