Chris Brophy has worked as a teacher, librarian, arts administrator and cultural heritage researcher. She has a Graduate Diploma in Creative Writing from Melbourne’s RMIT University. Her short stories have been shortlisted for, or won, various awards including an ABC Radio National Award for Regional Writers and the City of Melbourne Lord Mayor’s Short Story prize. In 2016, she was the recipient of a Publisher Introduction Program residency at Varuna and has twice been shortlisted for Overland’s Fair Australia essay prize.
Chris' manuscript Snow has been shortlisted for the 2026 Dorothy Hewett Award. In this short interview, with Mabel Gibson, Chris Brophy shares how it feels to be shortlisted and their advice for writers looking to submit to the Dorothy Hewett Award in the future.
About Snow: A coming of age story with a tragic twist set in regional Queensland in the fierce winter of 1960. Two sisters, Carly and Snow, are sent to stay with their policeman uncle when their mother is hospitalised. Carly, aged ten, is self-appointed guardian of five-year-old Snow who cannot/will not speak and is obsessed with her toy camera. Soon after arriving at their uncle’s, some shocking news breaks. The kidnapping of eight-year-old Sydney boy, Graeme Thorne. The ongoing search for Graeme grips the nation – and Carly. Yet another example of a world beyond her control. Then, one afternoon, Snow, too, disappears.
Mabel Gibson interviewed Chris about her shortlisting:
How do you feel being shortlisted for the 2026 DHA?
Being shortlisted for the 2026 Dorothy Hewett Award was both a surprise and an honour. Even if my manuscript Snow does not win, this shortlisting has given me an invaluable confidence boost that will keep me at my desk, keep me writing.
How long have you been working on Snow and what made you submit to the DHA this year?
I’ve been working on Snow for the past five years. Because it is set in 1960, it required quite a bit of research, especially when I made the decision to include an actual historic kidnapping as a significant event in the narrative. As part of my research, I also made a trip to the real life Darling Downs township which provides the setting for the novel, a township which remains remarkably similar to its 1960 layout and levels of activity. I’d completed and revised the manuscript by late last year so seized the opportunity to submit it for the 2026 Dorothy Hewett Award.
Snow is a coming of age story with a twist, narrated by ten year old Carly who becomes interested in the case of Graeme Thorne. Graeme Thorne was a real life eight year old boy who was kidnapped and murdered in Sydney in the 1960s. what inspired you to intertwine Graeme’s real life story with Carly’s?
The Graeme Thorne kidnapping was a case that truly gripped Australia, the first ever kidnapping for ransom in Australian history. Including it in the narrative allowed me to convey the mindset of everyday Australians in 1960 and also to further demonstrate the hyper alertness to danger which Carly frequently displays in connection to her younger and more vulnerable sister, Snow.
Do you have any advice for writers who have been working on a manuscript and are considering submitting their work into the DHA in the future?
There are few opportunities in Australia for emerging writers to get a foot in the door of the publishing world. The Dorothy Hewett Award is one of these rare opportunities, an award linked both to a high achieving Western Australian writer (Dorothy Hewett) and a well-established publisher (UWA Publishing). With Snow, before submitting it for this award, I shared my work with writer friends who generously provided invaluable feedback. I would encourage other writers planning to submit a manuscript for the Dorothy Hewett Award to do the same. Take on board the feedback from your chosen readers and then revise, revise, revise – so you have your work in its best possible state before submitting.
Check out our interviews with the other 5 shortlisted writers: