A WRITER’S writer, who has become equally famous as a novelist and a tireless advocate for the arts, was named “CityNews Canberra Artist of the Year” at the 32nd annual ACT Arts Awards evening, held in the Canberra Museum & Gallery this evening (November 22).

Nigel Featherstone was singled out for his eloquent writing and as a constant champion for his fellow Canberra writers and lovers of the written word.

“CityNews” editor Ian Meikle presented him with a certificate, prize money of $1000 and a F!nk studio jug.

Declaring himself “absolutely honoured”, Featherstone said: “I’ve lived in the ACT region for over three decades and it’s become my creative home as well as my geographic home. 

“The combination of our incredible arts and cultural institutions and relative peace and quiet has been essential to my work as a writer.”

Featherstone, whose novel “My Heart is a Little Wild Thing” was published by Ultimo Press in May this year, has been lavished with praise by critics around Australia for taking a remarkable look at Australian masculinity, for the complexity and contradiction of the work and for its lyrical evocation of the “magnificent” Monaro, in which the novel is set. 

The lyricism of his novel inspired British artist and composer BP Moore to release a composition called “Monaro” in June this year.

Quiet and erudite, Featherstone is a self-described “natural hermit”. A former officer at artsACT, he abandoned the public service in 2010 to become a full-time writer and has since published three novels, three novellas, a play, a libretto, at least 50 short stories, and around 120 non-fiction articles and essays, including stories about being an artist in regional Australia.

In 2021 he joined Canberra-region poets Melinda Smith and CJ Bowerbird to found the spoken-word/music collective “Hell Herons”, which fuses lyrical language with songs.

In 2022 he worked at The Street Theatre as a dramaturg on CJ Bowerbird’s “Coward Punch” and as forum host for “Twenty Minutes With The Devil”. 

His first full-length play, “The Story of the Oars”, was read in December 2021 as part of The Street’s “First Seen” program.

Although he has lived in Goulburn for the past 12 years, he identifies as a Canberra artist, is an active arts advocate and commentator in the ACT and has worked at ACT Writers since 2013, supporting and mentoring emerging writers, also connecting artists and community.

A familiar face on the wider Australian arts circuit, in August this year he was on the final panel at the Canberra Writers Festival and traversed northern NSW as part of the “Writers on the Road” regional tour. Then in October he led two residencies for the Terror Australis Writers Festival in Huon Valley, Tasmania.

Earlier in the evening at the ACT Arts Awards, the Helen Tsongas Award for Excellence in Acting was presented by Canberra Theatre director, Alex Budd, to Karen Vickery.

The awards evening, hosted by the Canberra Critics Circle, also featured the circle’s own awards to ACT region artists living within a 100-kilometre radius of Canberra, which went to:

• Film producer, Shannon Wilson-McClinton.

• Writers, Nigel Featherstone, Marion Halligan, Sandi Logan, Tabitha Carvan, Sarah St Vincent Welch and Kimberly K Williams.

• Visual artists, Rory Gillen, Michael Armstrong, Judith Nangala Crispin, Annette Blair, Maryke Henderson, Anita McIntyre and Valerie Kirk & Harriet Schwarzrock.

• Dance artists, Ali Mayes, Jake Silvestro, Danny Riley, Australian Dance Party, and Ausdance ACT.

• Musical artists, Pip Thompson, Fred Smith, Luminescence Chamber Singers, Ronan Apcar, Rachel McNally & Michael Dooley and Canberra Symphony Orchestra.

• Musical theatre artists, Andrew Finnegan, Echo Theatre Company, Stephanie Bailey, Ylaria Rogers and Rachel Reid (Jazida).

• Theatre artists, Meaghan Stewart, Jarrad West, Chrissie Shaw, Max Gambale, Christopher Samuel Carroll, Dylan Van Den Berg, Amy Kowalczuk and Andrea Close.