Faber Writing Academy is delighted to announce the winners of the second round of the 2025 FWA Alumni Award, Amanda Maxwell and Fliss Goldstein.
Amanda’s work, To Fall, is a story of grief, friendship, love, and war, set on the Surf Coast of Victoria, on Wadawurrung Country. It is a moving story told from the perspective of eighteen-year-old Ella who is close to securing a place on the professional surfing world tour, when her brother Baz is killed in Afghanistan.
Faber Writing Academy judges described Amanda’s writing as ‘tight, nuanced and affecting’ and said: ‘She has a great eye for the tiny gestures that speak loudly and we were unanimously moved by her writing sample.’
Fliss, who writes as AJ Lyndon, explores themes of love, loss and sexuality in Wax and Feathers. It is a feel-bad love story about Catholic Kit Copley and Protestant Zander Neville, two Oxford students in mid 1600s England, a dangerous time when there is room for only one faith and none for love between two men.
Faber Writing Academy judges said: ‘AJ Lyndon blends scene and characters like a master painter. Wax and Feathers embraces the core of queer historical romance while standing out as a unique work in the genre.’
The FWA Alumni Award is a new merit award for graduates of our 2023 – 2025 Stay the Course, Edit & Submit Your Novel, Advanced Novel Workshop and Writing a Novel programs.
The inaugural award offers six outstanding submission-ready graduates the opportunity to pitch their novels to UK literary agents at one of three industry days organised by the Faber Academy, UK, in April, July and October 2025, as well as the opportunity to have their work read by an Australian literary agent and an Allen & Unwin publisher.
Faber Writing Academy Manager, Pip Smith, said: ‘Once again, we were impressed by how many of our students have seen their novels through to completion. We’d love to be able to offer every one of them a place at the UK pitching day, and wish them all the best as they begin to shop their manuscripts around.’
Applications for Round Three of the Award open 3 September.
Amanda Maxwell
Amanda Maxwell is originally from Aotearoa/New Zealand and now lives on Wadawurrung Country on Victoria’s Surf Coast, where she works as a marine and environmental scientist. Amanda’s short stories have featured in literary journals, magazines and on radio internationally. She has just completed the draft manuscript of To Fall, her first novel. Amanda graduated from the Faber Writing a Novel Online course in 2023.
Fliss Goldstein
Fliss Goldstein has previously self-published two historical novels, The Welsh Linnet and The Tawny Sash under the pen name AJ Lyndon. She lives in country Victoria and keeps in touch with her awesome Faber buddies. Fliss wrote Wax and Feathers across three Faber courses: Kickstart Your Novel in 2022, Writing a Novel Online in 2023 and Stay the Course in 2023-24.