Another accolade for The First Week

Margaret Merrilees can add another feather to her cap*. Her debut novel The First Week has been shortlisted for the Barbara Jefferis Award, a very cool award that celebrates work that depicts 'women and girls in a positive way or otherwise empowers the status of women and girls in society'.
Read an extract of The First Week here or skip that and buy a copy here.You can read more about the award here and see the full (and awesome) shortlist here.
One of the judges, Dorothy Johnston, has written about the judging process here, and pointed out that:

Another interesting point to note is that, out of seven shortlisted titles, four were published by small (or small to medium-sized) publishers, although by far the greatest number of entries were submitted by the ‘big names’ – Penguin, Random House, Allen & Unwin and so on.

Tiny but mighty, over here. And we couldn't be prouder.
*Is that the right saying? What does it even mean?