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The Tina Kane Emergent Writer Award honours Tina Kane, who had been for twenty years – as a 2014 citation of her noted – ‘a presence to rely on, engaging with writers, locals and visitors, making them feel welcome in the space she creates around herself, which is one of curiosity, intimacy and genuine good will.’ Tina was particularly welcoming to young and newly emergent writers, who often expressed their gratitude for her personal warmth and attention. Hers is a tradition the Mildura Writers Festival intends to mark and continue with this annual award.
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The 2019 winner of the Tina Kane Emergent Writer Award was Ellen van Neerven. She is an award-winning writer of Mununjali Yugambeh (South East Queensland) and Dutch heritage. Ellen writes fiction, poetry, plays and non-fiction. Her first book, Heat and Light (UQP, 2014), was the recipient of the David Unaipon Award, the Dobbie Literary Award and the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Indigenous Writers Prize. Heat and Light was also shortlisted for The Stella Prize, the Queensland Literary Award for State Significance, and the Readings Prize. Ellen’s second book, a collection of poetry,
Comfort Food (UQP, 2016) was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Kenneth Slessor Prize and Highly Commended for the 2016 Wesley Michel Wright Prize. 
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