Rachel caps off trio of creative writing awards
 Creative Writing
When Rachel Hennessy won the Award for best unpublished manuscript by an emerging South Australian writer, she was following in familiar footsteps. Rachel is a graduate of the 成人大片's Masters in , and is now undertaking a PhD in the same discipline as well as working on her second book.
Her path to success almost mirrors that of the previous two Festival winners for best unpublished manuscripts in emerging South Australian writers, and Corrie Hosking, who were also studying Creative Writing at Adelaide. Rachel received the $10,000 Award at this year's Festival for The Quakers, a novel based on the strange story of her high school classmate, Anu Singh, who was convicted of the manslaughter of her boyfriend. The novel will be published by . "Winning the award has been a huge boost to my confidence in regarding myself as a 'real' writer," Rachel said. "The fact of future publication, as opposed to the dream, has allowed me to say at dinner parties, quite loudly, that I am a writer, something I'd always mumbled into my chin previously or avoided saying altogether. "I don't have any illusions that the magic wand has been waved and now everything comes easily. Still, it is great to have your work recognised and I can only hope that people like the book when it is finally out there in the world." Stefan Laszczuk, who won the 2004 award, has also completed the Masters in Creative Writing and is doing a PhD in Creative Writing. His winning novel, was also a selection and he is now working on a third novel as part of his PhD in the Creative Writing Program. "I have a great deal of respect for the people I have dealt with so far in the course," Stefan said. "I find they provide an excellent environment not only in which to grow and learn as a writer, but to make genuinely strong contacts within the industry." 2002 winner Corrie Hosking's educational path hardly needs telling. She also completed her Masters and PhD with the Creative Writing group. Her novel , published in 2004, was widely noticed. "I had pretty much given up hope on my first manuscript ever becoming a real book," Corrie said. "It had been long-listed for twice, I'd worked and re-worked, years had passed and I had just decided that it was going to be a learning experience in writing and that was OK. "Being awarded the prize and the subsequent launch at the following Festival was so fine. I couldn't have hoped for a better initiation into the world of writing." Her second manuscript Eating Lolly is in its final stages. The run of Festival success reflects the calibre of the course - recognised as among the most successful Australian creative writing programs - and which has students from all over the world, some of them already published authors. There are more than 30 PhD students, 20 doing graduate coursework and six undertaking honours. The course benefits from the input of a string of highly successful writers. Among them are , Professor JM Coetzee; well-known author and former Chair of Creative Writing at Adelaide , who is retired but maintains an involvement with students; and award-winning writer . "The outstanding outcomes of these graduates in winning these three successive awards really reflects the quality of the people we have associated with this course," says , , who also has a list of acclaimed novels and other writing to his name. Story by Robyn Mills
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