Winner of the ‘Wingate Award for Unpublished Manuscripts (Jewish Subject)’ – 2024 Shalom Australian Jewish Book Awards
We are delighted to announce that the winner of this inaugural award is Anna Kharzeeva for her non-fiction manuscript Warm Walls: A journey from Moscow to Sydney, to self. A memoir with recipes.
Anna is a food writer, social historian and journalist. She is the author of The Soviet Diet Cookbook: exploring life, culture and history – one recipe at a time. Born and raised in Moscow, Anna moved to Sydney in March 2022.
Anna’s manuscript is a record of her journey as a social historian and food writer who got caught up in historic events, beginning in February 2022 with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and following her from Moscow to Istanbul to a new life in Sydney. Along the way there are flashbacks to the four generations of women who came before her, from Anna’s mother to her great-great-grandmother. Their story is told in the context of Russian and Jewish history, with the theme of whether to stay or leave Russia being central. Anya’s great-great-grandmother made the decision to leave, and almost 100 years later, so did Anna. In her writing, Anna reflects on the turmoil she experiences (something she never expected to go through) and reevaluates every aspect of her life, emerging with a sense of strength and purpose. Each chapter features an object from the kitchen with warm walls (the way that heating runs in the apartment), where her great-grandmother, grandmother, mother and Anna lived at some point. A recipe to suit the kitchen object is included in each of the 10 chapters.
Judges’ comments: “In Warm Walls Anna Kharzeeva lays bare her departure from Russia in the wake of its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, as one thread in the rich tapestry of her Russian Jewish family saga. Interspersed with recollections and anecdotes of food and resilience, Kharzeeva’s memoir is not only the story of her own Russian Jewish family but an important history of the radical evolution of Russian Jewry from the 1917 October Revolution to the present. A timely book that highlights a lesser-known chapter in Jewish history and its reverberations today.”
“To be shortlisted for Shalom's Australian Jewish Book Award is a huge vote of confidence that my story is worth telling, that this book that has existed in my head might indeed one day become a reality. It's a humbling reminder that I must make room for writing in my life, and that I'm not alone in this gut wrenching, mind opening, joyful, all-consuming business of storytelling.” – Anna Kharzeeva
Read more about the manuscript here: https://www.australianjewishnews.com/a-timely-book/
Read more about Anna's experience here: https://thejewishindependent.com.au/memoir-with-recipes-wins-inaugural-unpublished-manuscript-award