An Australian author has won a very prestigious prize, but she may never have found out had she not checked her junk mail folder.
Helen Garner found an email in her spam folder from someone at Yale University who had ‘good news’ and asked for her phone number, so naturally it seemed pretty dodgy to her and she avoided it.
She did double check with her publisher eventually, and it transpired she had won the Windham-Campbell prize for writers in recognition for her non-fiction work.
She told the Sydney Morning Herald: “I nearly keeled over. I’m staggered. I feel thrilled and validated.”
The reason she had no idea was because, for this particular prize, your work doesn’t need to be formally submitted, just be known in the public eye. Apparently recipients are sometimes even surprised by a phone call.
We can only wish we’d get a junk email like this one, instead of yet another one asking if we need a penis enlargement.
