EWF and Hachette Australia, along with the Hannah Richell and in partnership with Simpsons Solicitors, are delighted to announce Monique Marani as the winner of the 2025 Richell Prize for Emerging Writers for her work The Sweeter.

Marani is a Croatian Australian writer and theatre-maker whose winning Richell Prize entry, The Sweeter, has also been awarded Highly Commended Second Place in the AWP Chapter One Award. This year’s judging panel praised the work for its literary skill and powerful storytelling, calling it ‘confident, compelling storytelling from an exciting emerging writer.’ 

‘It is the immense privilege the Emerging Writers’ Festival, represented by myself and Artistic Director & co-CEO Jess Zanoni, to administer the Richell Prize for Emerging Writers once again in 2025. Playing such a unique role in an up-and-coming writer’s journey is always heartening, more so when the calibre, quality and bravery of such writers only grows year-on-year. All our congratulations to Monique Marani for her winning entry, THE SWEETER, in an incredibly difficult-to-narrow-down shortlist! I hope that the opportunity not just for recognition but for development offered by Hachette Australia and the Richell family does incredible work to help you continue your bright literary future.‘

Jes Layton, Executive Director & co-CEO of the Emerging Writers’ Festival

‘Receiving the 2025 Richell Prize is a rare gift—not only for what it offers me as an artist, but for what it represents in our broader literary ecosystem. In a publishing landscape so often dictated by urgency and commerce, since its inception the Richell Prize has stood apart in its uncommon devotion to patience and its unwavering faith in emerging voices. What I appreciate most about the Richell is its willingness to trust in potential, in a story’s earliest sparks, and perhaps the most endangered of artistic and human resources: time. Writing, after all, is an art that resists haste. The Richell Prize, in its devotion to emerging writers without a complete manuscript, has distinguished itself through its understanding of this principle: born of generosity, mentorship, and the belief that emerging voices too deserve not just recognition but real, sustained support. I want to express my deepest gratitude to the Richell Prize judges and the team for their faith in my work, and for the extraordinary care they bring to nurturing new voices. To my fellow writers on the shortlist and longlist — congratulations. It is an honour to stand among you. My heartfelt thanks also to Hachette Australia and the Richell family for their enduring commitment to this prize, established in memory of Matt Richell — a champion of writers, of stories yet to be told, and of time.’ 

Monique Marani on winning the 2025 Prize

Marani’s winning work, The Sweeter, is set between Bosnia and Australia in the 1990s, and follows fifteen-year-old Zdjela, living with her ex-soldier father in a decaying apartment block on the outskirts of post-war Mostar. Her mother – once the star of an abandoned Yugoslav soap pilot – has died by suicide, and Zdjela is learning to survive in a violent, male-dominated world. When an Australian journalist contacts her father, a fragile thread of possibility appears, offering Zdjela hope of escape. But she soon discovers that hope and reality rarely align.  

‘Monique’s manuscript exemplifies what the Richell Prize was established to recognise – a distinctive new voice with something powerful to say and the craft to say it. The Sweeter is an extraordinary piece of writing – daring, atmospheric and emotionally intelligent. It captures both the intimacy and unease of coming of age amid displacement and trauma, expressed through prose that is precise, lyrical and assured. We are delighted to support Monique through the Richell Prize mentorship and to see where this remarkable talent will go next.’ 
This year, the Richell Prize received 775 entries. Each submission was read by two initial readers before the judging panel which consisted of Nea Close-Brown (Editor, Community Publishing, Indigenous Literacy Foundation), Kate Mayor (Head of Book Buying, Dymocks), Sally Tabner (Book People Bookseller of the Year and owner of Bookoccino), bestselling author Hannah Richell, and Vanessa Radnidge (Hachette Australia Head of Non-Fiction & Literary). After closely reviewing the longlist, the judges, chaired by Joel Naoum, Hachette Australia Publishing Director, met to discuss and assess the strengths of each work. From there, five writers were shortlisted, and the judging panel ultimately selected The Sweeter as the winner. re, quality and bravery of such writers only grows year-on-year. All our congratulations to Monique Marani for her winning entry, THE SWEETER, in an incredibly difficult-to-narrow-down shortlist! I hope that the opportunity not just for recognition but for development offered by Hachette Australia and the Richell family does incredible work to help you continue your bright literary future.‘

Joel Naoum, Publishing Director at Hachette Australia

The Emerging Writers’ Festival would like to extend congratulations to all the shortlisted and longlisted writers for this year’s Prize on a commendable achievement, in being recognised for your work among the 700+ writers who applied in 2025. We can’t wait to see where Monique Marani, and all the prize-listed writers will take their burgeoning literary careers beyond this year’s Richell Prize for Emerging Writers.