Tracey Slaughter becomes first overseas winner of Calibre Essay Prize

In her newest published essay Why your hair is long and your stories short, award-winning author and University of Waikato senior lecturer Tracey Slaughter explores memories of her mother’s hairdressing salon, where she grew up. The essay has been awarded the prestigious Australian Book Review’s Calibre Essay Prize, a $10,000 honour that has never been given to an overseas writer before. Slaughter spoke to the Waikato Herald about the difficult journey behind her words.

Tracey Slaughter first learned about domestic violence sitting on the lino floors of her mother’s salon, watching hair drift down around her.

“It was a storytelling space,” Slaughter told the Waikato Herald.

“It’s where my fascination with stories came from. I did a lot of listening.”

Slaughter said the salon was a place of female community with a strong sense of support.

“It was also a dangerous place. I learned disturbing lessons about what it means to be a woman, in particular the story of domestic violence.

“That was the story that I felt needed to be told in a truthful way.”

But it was also a story that almost never made it to the page.

“To just sit down and tell the story of domestic violence is heavy and when I had tried before, I failed,” Slaughter said.

“Domestic violence goes on being a traumatic truth in so many women’s lives.

“My early encounters with it and with its impact on female psychology - there were some lessons there that it’s taken me a long time to unwind.”

University of Waikato lecturer and Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2023 editor Tracey Slaughter. Photo / Joel Hinton

Then, after winning the Landfall Essay Prize in 2015, Slaughter’s writing began to take a different direction.

“When I gave myself permission to work in essay form rather than story mode, it really sprang to life,” Slaughter said.

“I wanted to dig into both the good things but also the harrowing realities of the past.

“It’s been a real journey.”

Then, once she had finished the piece, Slaughter wasn’t sure it was ready to be read by anyone else, let alone be entered into a prestigious overseas writing competition.

“I was just a hair’s breadth away from not sending it in.

“It was very unconventional, very fragmented, very personal. I thought my chances were near zero.”

Slaughter said she has never managed to look at her work from a distance.

“It’s quite extreme, the mind state I still get into. I wanted to send it in as an act of faith, to back myself.”

In the end, Slaughter’s risk paid off.

Tracey Slaughter's personal essay about hair salon conversations stood out against 567 entries from 28 countries, winning the Calibre Essay Prize. Photo / 123rf

Her personal essay, Why your hair is long and your stories short, stood out against 567 entries from 28 countries to win first place in the Australian Book Review’s Calibre Essay Prize competition.

Slaughter is also the first overseas writer to be awarded the prize.

“I was absolutely astounded when I got the call that I was in the shortlist. That in itself was enough of a shock.”

Slaughter missed the first phone call announcing her win.

“They called while I was teaching. I saw the Australian number and thought, ‘What is this?’”

Slaughter called the number back.

“I was blown away,” Slaughter said.

“I just feel so blessed in that it feels like such a confirmation of the direction that my work is moving in.”

The Calibre Essay Prize was begun by the Australian Book Review in 2007 and has been open to overseas writers since 2015.

Now in its 18th year, the prize encourages writers of all kinds to explore one of the oldest forms in literature while its 5000-word limit and $10,000 prize set it apart from other essay writing competitions.

Australian Book Review editor and one of this year’s Calibre Prize judges Peter Ross said the response to Slaughter’s essay was “enthusiastic”.

“For me it is one of the finest essays in the history of the Calibre Prize,” Ross told the Waikato Herald.

“It is certainly the most innovative and lyrical.”

Ross said the essay deserved a wider New Zealand audience.

Judges Amy Bailieu, Shannon Burn and Beejay Silcox said in a joint statement that this year’s entries “delighted” them.

“Among them were essays exploring the ethics of AI and the repercussions of war, reflections on loss, climate change and family.”

The judges’ statement said Slaughter’s essay stood out because it was “sharp as good scissors”.

“A beauty salon becomes a refracting point for the dark complexities of womanhood,” the statement said.

“[It is] as evocative as it is decisive.”

Maryana Garcia is a Hamilton-based multimedia reporter covering breaking news in Waikato. She previously wrote for the Rotorua Daily Post and the Bay of Plenty Times.