Tony Birch

well, not attempts, but there's been discussions among scientists and environmentalists to in fact recover that lake and the suggestion that it could be recovered and returned to a pristine condition.

And there are certainly doubts about that.

But I think as a sort of a hope or a metaphor for how we might think about saving landscapes or protecting them, it's a wonderful story that deals with that.

There are other stories that bring what we might call the everyday domestic experience of families, relationships, et cetera, where the environment or natural environment, rather than be a character in those stories, is a characteristic or a setting for the story.

So you get variations where I think we might say place, landscape, environment,

are characters, are central and key characters.

And then there are other stories where both the non-human and the environment or the natural environment and place are, yeah, for want of a better term, and I think it might be a bit simplistic, are backdrops to stories.

And I think what Inga Simpson is doing in the book, and I think she does successfully in most of the stories, is to

in a sense, get us to accept that landscape place is not a benign force.

It is actually pulsating in our lives and we need to be aware of that.

I mean, there was a bit of debate, of course, about the seller when it was inaugurated, which I thought was petty.

I think it's an absolutely vital award.

And to be honest, Kate, whatever I might want to argue for its validity was nothing as important as having read

many books over two years and just been astounded by the depth of quality of writing, both fiction, nonfiction and poetry of these writers and really being surprised.

And I suppose, I don't know if I should feel guilty about that, being surprised at how much great work was out there.

Now, obviously I do read many books that would be on the stellar long list.

So it wasn't as if I wasn't reading these books.

It was that

Just being, you know, really joyfully surprised about the absolute breadth.

So I suppose the thing about The Cellar, because you're dealing with different genres, so you're dealing with fiction, non-fiction and poetry, you really get to engage with writers working across such a broad swathe of interests.