$10,000 prize for humour writing
Author Bernard Cohen has won a $10,000 prize for humour writing for his novel The Antibiography of Robert F. Menzies, published in 2013 by HarperCollins.
Bernard Cohen’s novel The Antibiography of Robert F. Menzies, published in 2013 by HarperCollins, has won a $10,000 prize for humour writing announced at a ceremony at the State Library of New South Wales last month.
The book is an irreverent satire of Australian politics set around a soon-to-be-elected Australian prime minister who invokes the spirit of Sir Robert Menzies and, astonishingly, the former leader rises from the grave.
Accepting the inaugural Russell Prize for Humour Writing, Cohen said: “I’m delighted, firstly because my teenage daughter claims my jokes are bad, but I can now say ‘officially funny’. I also run a creative writing school for children and they can be equally sceptical of my humour.”
The judges said The Antibiography of Robert F. Menzies was “post-modernist with actual jokes” and “perfectly captured the states of nervy restlessness in the Australian psyche, while possessing the grace of great fiction”.
Cohen is director of The Writing Workshop, which he established in Sydney in 2006 to run creative workshops and activities for budding young writers.
The Antibiography of Robert F. Menzies is Cohen’s fifth novel. His second novel, The Blindman’s Hat, won the Australian/Vogel Literary Award.
Cohen has donated his $10,000 prize to two charities which provide play activities for children.
REPORT by Danny Gocs
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