Raeden Richardson (MHS 2012) had his first novel, The Degenerates (Text Publishing), published last year and visited the school soon afterwards as part of our annual Literary Festival. He spoke to last year’s Year 11 students and donated a number of copies of the novel, which is partially set at MHS, to students at the school.
The Degenerates has now been longlisted for Australia’s most prestigious literary prize, the Miles Franklin Literary Award, with Raeden appearing on the longlist alongside giants of Australian literature such as Michelle de Kretser and Tim Winton. The judging panel commented, “Writers were unwilling to take the form of the novel for granted and showed a restlessness and inventiveness that opened up our reading in startling ways. Duelling timelines, unexplained discontinuities, temporal uncertainty, and absurdist comedy all worked through these novels to strip the patina from everyday life. There was also a marked singularity in the voices of narration. More than anything, it was the authenticity of these voices, with all their ticks and textures, that spoke to us judges.” You can see the full list here.
Raeden’s novel has also been longlisted for the ALS Gold Medal 2025. The Medal was inaugurated by the Australian Literature Society, which was founded in Melbourne in 1899 and incorporated into the Association for the Study of Australian Literature in 1982. The winner receives a gold medal. You can see the full list here.
Winners for both awards will be announced in July.
Raeden presented workshops at this year’s Melbourne Writers Festival and is currently overseas working on his second novel. The MHS community would like to warmly congratulate Raeden on the tremendous honour of being longlisted for these two awards and wish him luck.
