Author Isla Morley has won this year’s $5,000 Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize. The Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender and Women’s Studies and the Department of English at the University of Rochester judged the award.
Morley’s debut novel, Come Sunday tells the story of Abbe Deighton who goes through unspeakable loss before finding a new way to live with hope. Come Sunday was also a finalist for the prestigious Commonwealth Prize. Morley will receive the Kafka Prize at the Rush Rhees Library on the University of Rochester’s River Campus on October 21st.
In the press release, Morley had this statement: “At some point, we all suffer at the hand of someone else. Part of what I wanted to examine in writing this story was whether healing comes when blame can be assigned. Or does transformation and redemption come only through the course of forgiveness? The question arose in part from my work with women trying to make better lives for themselves, and also from having grown up in a ravaged country that ultimately chose reconciliation over vengeance.”