No longer the Premier’s Literary Awards, the NSW Literary Awards shortlist has been announced. As usual, I’ve read or seen very few of them (I’ve included images of those)and have a couple more on my TBR shelf. The State Library of NSW website is a little unwieldy – here’s the list in more accessible form. All the links are to the library’s site, including the judges’ comments.
Christina Stead Prize for Fiction
Judging panel: Jock Serong, Abbas El-Zein, Jenn Martin, Angela O’Keeffe, Jonathan Seidler.
- Cure, Katherine Brabon (Ultimo Press)
- Arborescence, Rhett Davis (Hachette Australia)
- The Immigrants, Moreno Giovannoni (Black Inc) – My blog post on his excellent Fireflies of Autumn here
- The Passenger Seat, Vijay Khurana (Ultimo Press)
- Rapture, Emily Maguire (Allen & Unwin) – My blog post here
- Elegy, Southwest Madeleine Watts (Ultimo Press)
Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction
Judging panel: Maddison Connaughton, Alan Atkinson, Meera Atkinson, Bridget Brennan, Anton Enus.
- Always Home, Always Homesick, Hannah Kent (Picador Australia) – my blog post to come when the Book Club meet
- Find Me at the Jaffa Gate, Micaela Sahhar (NewSouth Publishing)
- Gather Up Your World in One Long Breath, S. Shakthidharan (Powerhouse Publishing) – beside my bed
- 58 Facets, Marika Sosnowski (MUP)
- Clever Men, Martin Thomas (Allen & Unwin)
- Näku Dhäruk The Bark Petitions, Clare Wright (Text Publishing)
Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry
Judging panel: Rico Craig, Alison Croggon, Kate Middleton, Sara M Saleh, Les Wicks,
- A Sonogrammar, Kay Lare (Puncher and Wattmann)
- Year of the Ox ANDREW BROOKS (Cordite Publishing)
- How To Emerge, Jill Jones (Vagabond Press) – on my TBR shelf
- Bathypelagia, Debbie Lim (Cordite Publishing)
- The Hum Hearers, Shey Marque (UWA Publishing)
- Past & Parallel Lives, Kaya Ortiz (UWA Publishing)
Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children’s Literature
Judging panel: Tim Harris, Ursula Dubosarsky, Maryam Master
- Little Bones, Sandy Bigna (UQP)
- Into the Bewilderness, Gus Gordon (Figment Books)
- The Year We Escaped, Suzanne Leal (HarperCollins Publishers Australia)
- An Ant’s Guide to Being an Ant, Zoe Meagher and Julia Darling (Museums Victoria)
- A Gift from the Birds, Caroline Stills (Text Publishing)
- Gone, Michel Streich (Thames & Hudson Australia)
Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature
Judging panel: Davina Bell, Anna Fienberg, Ambelin Kwaymullina
- A Good Kind of Trouble, Brooke Blurton and Melanie Saward (HarperCollins Publishers Australia)
- How to Be Normal, Ange Crawford (Walker Books Australia)
- Darkest Night, Brightest Star, Barry Jonsberg (Allen & Unwin Children’s)
- Weaving Us Together, Lay Maloney (Lothian Children’s Books)
- Golden, Jade Timms (Text Publishing)
- Desert Tracks, Marly Wells and Linda Wells (Magabala Books)
- Starlight, Solli Raphael (Puffin)
Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting
Judging panel: Dylan Van Den Berg, Peter Matheson, Paige Rattray
- Song of First Desire, Andrew Bovell (Belvoir St Theatre/Currency Press)
- The Black Woman of Gippsland, Andrea James (Melbourne Theatre Company/Currency Press)
- Snakeface, Aliyah Knight (Fruit Box Theatre and Belvoir 25A)
- Destiny, Kirsty Marillier Marillier (Melbourne Theatre Company)
- The Wrong Gods, S. Shakthidharan (Belvoir St Theatre/Melbourne Theatre Company/Currency Press)
- Troy, Tom Wright (Malthouse Theatre)
- Koreaboo, Michelle Lim Davidson (Griffin Theatre Company)
- Nucleus, Alana Valentine (Griffin Theatre Company/Currency Press)
Betty Roland Prize for Scriptwriting
udging panel: Jenevieve Chang, Pauline Clague, Richard Kuipers
- Christy, Mirrah Foulkes and David Michôd (Black Bear)
- Mystery Road: Origin, Season 2, Episode 2, Jada Alberts (Bunya Productions, ABC)
- The Correspondent, Peter Duncan (Pop Family Entertainment)
- Fisk, Season 3, Episode 3 ‘I’m the Fisk’, Penny Flanagan and Kitty Flanagan (ABC)
- The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Episode 4, Shaun Grant (Curio Pictures, Screen Australia, Amazon MGM Studios)
- Apple Cider Vinegar, Episode 1, Samantha Strauss (See-Saw Films & Picking Scabs)
Indigenous Writers’ Prize
Judging panel: Aunty Fay Muir, Krystal De Napoli, Glenn Shea
- Murriyang: Song of time, Stan Grant (Bundyi, an imprint of Simon and Schuster Australia)
- On the Way to Yalaŋbara, Rärriwuy Gurramu Marika and Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs (Indigenous Literacy Foundation)
- Apron-Sorrow / Sovereign-Tea, Natalie Harkin (Wakefield Press)
- MLA26 IWP SL Eclipse, Kirli Saunders (JOAN, an imprint of Allen & Unwin)
- Long Yarn Short: We Are Still Here, Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts (UQP)
- Old Days Imanka nurna laakinha nitjaarta, Marjorie Nunga Williams (Magabala Books)
Multicultural NSW Award
Judging panel: Thuy On, Sarah Ayoub, Simon Chan, Farz Edraki, Ita Hanssens
- Discipline, Randa Abdel-Fattah (UQP)
- Learned Behaviours, Zeynab Gamieldien (Ultimo Press)
- Murriyang: Song of time, Stan Grant (Bundyi, an imprint of Simon and Schuster Australia)
- How to Dodge Flying Sandals and Other Advice for Life, Daniel Nour (Affirm Press)
- Find Me at the Jaffa Gate, Micaela Sahhar (NewSouth Publishing)
- Gather Up Your World in One Long Breath, S. Shakthidharan (Powerhouse Publishing)
Highly commended
- Shapeshifting, Jeanine Leane and Ellen Van Neerven (Eds) (UQP)
- It’s a Sign, Ela Pinar (Guest House Publishing)
UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing
- How to Be Normal, Ange Crawford (Walker Books Australia)
- Snakeface, Aliyah Knight (Fruit Box Theatre and Belvoir 25A)
- An Ant’s Guide to Being an Ant, Zoe Meagher and Julia Darling (Museums Victoria)
- Wait Here, Lucy Nelson (Summit Books Australia)
- A Savage Turn, Luke Patterson (Magabala Books)
- Find Me at the Jaffa Gate, Micaela Sahhar (NewSouth Publishing)
- Long Yarn Short: We Are Still Here, Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts (UQP)
The University of Sydney People’s Choice Award and Book of the Year don’t have short lists.
The winners will be announced at a ceremony at the Library on Monday 18th of May.
Me fail? I fly! 