2023 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards

Who knows who will be Premier at the awards ceremony in May, but the shortlist was announced on 1 March while Dom Perrottet is still in the offices. The list can be bit hard to read on the State Library site. Here it is in one quick look, with links to the judges comments.

Christina Stead Prize

• Cold Enough for Snow, JESSICA AU (Giramondo)
• Every Version of You, GRACE CHAN (Affirm Press)
• Women I Know, KATERINA GIBSON (Scribner)
• Iris, FIONA KELLY McGREGOR (Pan Macmillan Australia)
• Bad Art Mother, EDWINA PRESTON (Wakefield Press)

UTS Glenda Adam’s Award for New Writing

• Blaze, DEL KATHRYN BARTON AND HUNA AMWEERO (Causeway Films)
• The Eulogy, JACKIE BAILEY (Hardie Grant Books)
• We Come With This Place, DEBRA DANK (Echo Publishing)
• Women I Know, KATERINA GIBSON (Scribner)
• The Rat-Catcher’s Apprentice, MAGGIE JANKULOSKA (MidnightSun Publishing)
• The Upwelling, LYSTRA ROSE (Hachette Australia)
• Hush, CIELLA WILLIAMS (New Ghosts Theatre Company/ Playlab Theatre)
• At the Altar of Touch, GAVIN YUAN GAO (UQP)

Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-fiction

• We Come With This Place, DEBRA DANK (Echo Publishing)
• Mothertongues, CERIDWEN DOVEY AND ELIZA BELL (Penguin Random House Australia)
• How to End a Story: Diaries 1995–1998, HELEN GARNER (Text)
• Bedtime Story, CHLOE HOOPER (Scribner)
• Crimes Against Nature: capitalism and global heating, JEFF SPARROW (Scribe)
• Another Day in the Colony, CHELSEA WATEGO (UQP)

Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry

• Revenants, ADAM AITKEN (Giramondo)
• Stasis Shuffle, PAM BROWN (Hunter Publishers Australia)
• The Singer and Other Poems, KIM CHENG BOEY (Cordite Books)
• Mirabilia, LISA GORTON (Giramondo)
• The Jaguar, SARAH HOLLAND-BATT (UQP)
• And to Ecstasy, MARJON MOSSAMMAPARAST (Upswell)

Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children’s Literature

• Amma’s Sari, SANDHYA PARAPPUKKARAN and MICHELLE PEREIRA (Hardie Grant)
• Wanderer, VICTOR KELLEHER (Christmas Press)
• Rabbit, Soldier, Angel Thief, KATRINA NANNESTAD (HarperCollins)
• Rita’s Revenge, LIAN TANNER (Allen & Unwin)
• The First Scientists: Deadly Inventions and Innovations from Australia’s First Peoples, COREY TUTT and BLAK DOUGLAS (Hardie Grant)
• Zadie Ma and the Dog Who Chased the Moon, GABRIELLE WANG (Penguin Random House Australia)

Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature

• Completely Normal (and Other Lies), BIFFY JAMES (Hardie Grant)
• A Little Spark, BARRY JONSBERG (Allen & Unwin)
• Sugar, CARLY NUGENT (Text)
• The Upwelling, LYSTRA ROSE (Hachette Australia)
• The Brink, HOLDEN SHEPPARD (Text)
• Where You Left Us, RHIANNON WILDE (UQP)

Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting

• Chalkface, ANGELA BETZIEN (State Theatre Company South Australia and Sydney Theatre Company)
• Son of Byblos, JAMES ELAZZI (25A @ Belvoir St Theatre/ Playlab Theatre)
• The End of Winter, NOËLLE JANACZEWSKA (Siren Theatre Company)
• Cathedral, CALEB LEWIS (State Theatre Company SA/ Country Arts SA/ Currency Press)
• Golden Blood (黄金血液), MERLYNN TONG
• Whitefella Yella Tree, DYLAN VAN DEN BERG )Griffin Theatre Company/ Currency Press)

Betty Roland Prize for Scriptwriting

• Mystery Road: Origin, Episode One, ‘The Whipping Tree’, BLAKE AYSHFORD (Bunya Productions)
• Blaze, DEL KATHRYN BARTON and HUNA AMWEERO (Causeway Films)
• Heartbreak High, Season 1 Episode 8, ‘Three of Swords’, HANNAH CARROLL CHAPMAN (FremantleMedia Australia/ Netflix ANZ)
• The Australian Wars, JACOB HICKEY, RACHEL PERKINS and DON WATSON (Blackfella Films)
• Heartbreak High, Season 1 Episode 5, ‘Bin Chicken’, THOMAS WILSON-WHITE (FremantleMedia Australia/ Netflix ANZ)
• The Stranger, THOMAS M WRIGHT (See Saw Films)

Multicultural NSW Award

• 11 Words for Love, RANDA ABDEL-FATTAH and MAXINE BENEBA CLARKE (Hachette Australia)
• The Eulogy, JACKIE BAILEY (Hardie Grant)
• Scary Monsters, MICHELLE DE KRETSER (Allen & Unwin)
• The Whitewash, SIANG LU (UQP)
• The Bonesetter’s Fee and other stories, RASHIDA MURPHY (Spineless Wonders)
• When Granny Came To Stay, ALICE PUNG and SALLY SOWEOL HAN )Pan Macmillan Australia)

NSW Premier’s Translation Prize

• People from Bloomington, BUDI DARMA, translated by TIFFANY TSAO from INDONESIAN (Penguin Classics)
• On the Line, JOSEPH PONTHUS, translated by STEPHANIE SMEE (Black Inc.)
• Duino Elegies, RAINER MARIA RILKE, translated by ALISON CROGGON (Newport Street Books)
• The Membranes, CHI TA-WEI, translated by ARI LARISSA HEINRICH (Columbia University Press)
• Deadly Quiet City: Stories From Wuhan, COVID Ground Zero, MURONG XUECUN , translated by ANONYMOUS (Hardie Grant)
• The Assommoir, ÉMILE ZOLA, translated by BRIAN NELSON (Oxford University Press)

Indigenous Writers’ Prize

• We Come With This Place, DEBRA DANK (Echo Publishing)
• Harvest Lingo, LIONEL FOGARTY (Giramondo)
• Open Your Heart to Country, JASMINE SEYMOUR (Magabala Books)
• The Dunggiirr Brothers and the Caring Song of the Whale, AUNTY SHAA SMITH, NEEYAN SMITH, UNCLE BUD MARSHALL, with Yandaarra including SARAH WRIGHT, LARA DALEY and PAUL HODGE (Allen & Unwin)
• The First Scientists: Deadly Inventions and Innovations from Australia’s First Peoples, COREY TUTT and BLAK DOUGLAS (Hardie Grant)
• Another Day in the Colony, CHELSEA WATEGO (UQP)

The winners are announced on 22 May. With any luck there will be a break from recent practice and the Premier, whoever it is, will make the presentations.

I’m in no position to predict winners, having read or seen very few of the shortlisted titles, loved some, found one mediocre and one unreadable. All the same, I’d happily risk a large sum on The Australian Wars for the Betty Roland, and a moderate amount on Jaguar for the Kenneth Slessor. It will be interesting to see what happens if Anonymous wins the Translation Prize. Whatever, that’s an impressive list for anyone stuck for something to read.