Not long ago I mentioned that nice new Australian prize, worth $100,000, known as the Prime Minister’s Literary Prize. And while that would certainly help a good Aussie writer to survive a couple of years longer without having to take another job, I was pretty excited to hear that an Australian author has just picked up a prize worth $880,000. That’s serious money!

Melbourne-based young adult writer Sonya Hartnett just won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award from the Swedish government.

She’s not a writer I’m familiar with – yet! – but according to a bio, she actually had her first book published when she was just 15 years old. That does give her around 25 years of professional experience, and probably a lot of years in which she earned a mere fraction of $880,000. But it does give aspiring Aussie writers a bit of hope – well, that’s how I feel, anyway.