Clutch Feathers, Draw Breath is an unpublished novel that is shortlisted for the 2025 Dorothy Hewett Award. In this short interview, with UWA Publishing intern Reilly McGrath, Corrie Hosking shares how it feels to be shortlisted and her advice for writers looking to submit to the Dorothy Hewett Award in the future.
Â
Corrie Hosking lives with family in the Adelaide Hills, committed to restoring Kaurna Country, edging Peramangk. Her early writing achieved various awards and publications. Regardless, artists need income, so Corrie became a Social Worker, tending children in Care through trauma-informed Play & Narrative Therapy. Recent years saw Corrie return to creative practice. Fascination for this drive led to Artists’ Residencies, inspiring Clutch Feathers, Draw Breath an illustrated work of fiction exploring our need for connection and creativity—with environment, with one another. This manuscript was awarded Matilda Bookshop’s inaugural Deep Creek Fellowship, including the uplift of Hannah Kent’s mentorship.Â
Â
Clutch Feathers, Draw Breath is an illustrated work of literary fiction exploring intricacies of mental health recovery. Rosemary is desperately ill. Dogged attempts at Wellness aggravate her introspection, furthering her isolation. Somehow, Rosemary comes to reconsider plants—weeds. She starts drawing, creating scores of petri-dish ‘Micro-Flora’. Consumed, Rosemary upends her life, travelling to International Artists’ Residencies. Dislocated, Romy meets artists from around the world, similarly gripped by their own personal, political and creative challenges. It is through observation, listening, un/learning, processes of relationship, art-making, activism—a deeply renewed Acknowledgement of Country—that ultimately directs her toward Home, toward recovery. The 2025 Dorothy Hewett Award judges commented "Fretted with fine illustrations, Clutch Feathers, Draw Breath is a gently ruminative work of fiction exploring human fragility, fragmentation, and the therapeutic dimensions of art. Through its refreshing suspensions of syntax and pointillist accretion of sense impressions, the work’s lyrical sensibility nevertheless remains grounded in the vicissitudes of the body and the earthiness of domestic life."
Â
UWA Publishing intern, Reilly McGrath, interviewed Corrie about her shortlisting:
Reilly: What does being shortlisted for the Dorothy Hewett Award mean to you? Â
Corrie: It’s been almost 20 years since I flirted with publication. This recognition is invigorating, particularly in association with Dorothy Hewett—a staunch supporter of Australian Literature and the excavating of our complicated lives. To me, being shortlisted means this work might be of interest—beyond my own grappling. I write to ease troubling, to make sense of life. It’s insistent. Urgent. Ultimately, I write to communicate and connect. To think there might be receptive readers is thrilling. Â
Â
Reilly: How long have you been working on this piece, and what made you want to submit to the DHA this year? Â
Corrie: Clutch Feathers, Draw Breath has been a long time coming. Writing has happened in surges, amid my day job as a Social Worker, my big family and our efforts restoring a patch of Kaurna land. (Don’t get me started on the tidy deception of Work / Life Balance, particularly when there are creative compulsions in the mix…) My first draft was realised across two International Artists’ Residencies, over five years ago. Dislocation from the everyday, unfamiliar landscape, cultures and arts practice, sanctioned time to immerse in creative endeavour was exhilarating—for me and this particular project: essential. Every now and then I have a wave of energy to revisit this manuscript. I know there is still work to be done. A deadline can urge incentive—hence my submission late last year to the DHA.Â
 Â
Reilly: Do you have any advice for writers considering submitting their work in to the Dorothy Hewett Award in the future? Â
Corrie: Who am I to give advice?! For what it’s worth: before considering a submission, I think it’s important to ensure the work is well realised. There are many opportunities for support, development, assessment, feedback. Of course some of these are costly—maybe explore a grant? Find trusted readers for perspective. Understand that toughening your hide is part of the process. (I am always anticipating the most brutal criticism and practicing justification—Why is this story worth telling? Why should people give a shit?) A deadline can inspire momentum, but also use judgement, discerning when your draft is ready enough to share. Maybe it needs another year—in my case, another seven…Â
Â
Clutch Feathers, Draw Breath is an unpublished fiction manuscript shortlisted for the 2025 Dorothy Hewett Award. The winner will be announced late July.
Reilly McGrath is a former Bachelor of Arts student from the University of Western Australia, with First Class Honours in English Literary Studies. Â
Â
Check out our interviews with the other 5 shortlisted writers:
Â