Book sent by text message wins major award

The book written by a detained refugee has scooped two of Australia’s richest prizes

Detained author Behrouz Boochani on Manus Island
(Image credit: Source: Supplied)

An asylum seeker who has been detained by Australia on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island for years has won Australia’s richest literary prize with a book that was submitted to its publisher via text message.

Journalist Behrouz Boochani, an Iranian Kurd, wrote No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison and sent the manuscript piece by piece to translator Omid Tofighian.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More