The 2019 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards were announced this week. The State Library of NSW has the full list on its website, but you have to do a lot of clicking back back and forth to read it. Lisa at ANZ LitLovers has listed most of the categories in easily readable form – just click here.
I haven’t read any of the books shortlisted for the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction or the UTS Glenda Adams Prize for New Writing, though more than one are on my TBR list. None of the contenders for the NSW Premier’s Prize for Translation show up when I search my blog for their names.
I’ve done marginally better on the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction. I’ve read Tracker by Alexis Wright (my review here) and I’ve listened to most of an audio book of Saga Land by Richard Fidler & Kári Gíslason (review to come when I listen to the rest of it).
Of the Multicultural NSW Award, I’ve read only Rainforest by Eileen Chong (my review here).
The biennial Indigenous Writing Prize lists two works I’ve read/seen: Taboo by Kim Scott, which we read for the Book Group (my review here), and Leah Purcell’s play The Drover’s Wife, which I was completely blown away by at the Belvoir.
Then there are the categories not blogged by Lisa (and mostly unread by me, sadly). I’ve commented where I have more than nothing to say:
People’s Choice Award:
If you live in New South wales you can vote for any of the titles on the Christina Stead Prize shortlist (click here).
Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry:
Interval by Judith Bishop
I Love Poetry by Michael Farrell (my review here)
Things I’ve Thought To Tell You Since I Saw You Last by Penelope Layland
Wildlife of Berlin by Philip Neilsen
Blindside by Mark Reid
Rondo by Chris Wallace-Crabbe
Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature:
Between Us by Clare Atkins
Small Spaces by Sarah Epstein
I Am Out With Lanterns by Emily Gale
Amelia Westlake by Erin Gough
Stone Girl by Eleni Hale
The Art of Taxidermy by Sharon Kernot
Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children’s Literature:
Shine Mountain by Julie Hunt
Maya and Cat by Caroline Magerl
Leave Taking by Lorraine Marwood (I haven’t read this but I did blog about her Downhill all the Way, Five Islands Press 2005)
Dingo by Claire Saxby and Tannya Harricks
Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend
The Dog with Seven Names by Dianne Wolfer
Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting:
The Almighty Sometimes by Kendall Feaver
Oil Babies by Petra Kalive
Going Down by Michele Lee
Lost Boys by Lachlan Philpott
The Long Forgotten Dream by Howard Lawrence Sumner (I saw this in the Sydney Theatre Company, and though the performances were terrific there was something unresolved about the play itself,
Barbara and the Camp Dogs by Ursula Yovich and Alana Valentine (I saw this at the Belvoir, and loved it – but I’d love anything that had Ursula Yovich in it, and this had Elaine Crombie as well)
Betty Roland Prize for Scriptwriting:
Picnic at Hanging Rock, Episode 4 by Alice Addison (Has this been screened yet?)
Jirga by Benjamin Gilmour (I saw this at the Sydney Film Festival, and it was one of my favourite films of 2018.)
Seoul City Sue by Noëlle Janaczewska
Mystery Road, Episode 5 – ‘The Waterhole’ by Timothy Lee (I loved this series, more than the first series, but I never remember individual episodes.)
Mystery Road, Episode 1 – ‘Gone’ by Michaeley O’Brien (Ditto)
Riot by Greg Waters
The winners will be announced on 29 April, on the eve of the Sydney Writers’ Festival.
Me fail? I fly! 
Hi Jonathan, thanks for the mention (though in para 1 LOL you call me Sue). I agree entirely about that irritating website… I admire your persistence in listing all the shortlists, I didn’t have the patience for the genres I don’t cover on the blog.
I have added your Rainforest review as a link to mine:)
Does Saga Land work well as an audiobook?
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Hi Lisa. Oops! My first para now calls you Lisa. I’ve just had an email from a reader who recommends Books+Publishing, @BplusPNews on Twitter, for easy to read lists for literary prizes, an account which I now follow, and which I expect to save me at least a little mucking around.
Thanks for linking to my Rainforest review. It’s a book I would recommend to people who don’t care for poetry in general, because it beautifully presents the poetry as growing out of Eileen’s life, and also has recipes.
Saga Land works very well as an audio book. The authors read alternate chapters, which is how the book is written, and their different voices, including Kári’s slight Nordic burr, function a bit as different typefaces would in a written text. I did have trouble with Richard’s reading, though I can’t tell whether the problem is with him, my car’s sound system, or my ears’ increasing incompetence at filtering out background noise: whichever, he has a tic of fading away at the end of sentences, which meant that I missed quite a lot of his actual words.
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