2011 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards Shortlists

Federal Arts Minister, Simon Crean, has announced the 2011 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards shortlists.

Mr Crean said being shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards is a great achievement for authors that will bring further public recognition of their writing. The judging panels were enormously impressed by the breadth of talent displayed in this year’s entries, and applauded the inventiveness, artistry and flair for which Australian creators and publishers are justly renowned.

So here are the shortlists :

Non-fiction
• Sydney by Delia Falconer
• How To Make Gravy by Paul Kelly
• The Party by Richard McGregor
• The Hard Light of Day by Rod Moss
• Claude Levi-Strauss: The Poet in the Laboratory by Patrick Wilcken

Fiction
• Traitor by Stephen Daisley
• Notorious by Roberta Lowing
• When Colts Ran by Roger McDonald
• Glissando by David Musgrave
• That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott

Young Adult Fiction
• Good Oil by Laura Buzo
• Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley
• The Three Loves of Persimmon by Cassandra Gold
• About a Girl by Joanne Horniman
• The Piper’s Son by Melina Marchetta

Children’s Fiction
• Why I Love Australia by Bronwyn Bancroft
• Flyaway by Lucy Christopher
• Now by Morris Gleitzman
• April Underhill, Tooth Fairy by Bob Graham
• Shake a Leg by Boori Monty Pryor and Jan Ormerod

More information about the shortlists is available from the Australian Government’s Arts and Culture web pages.

The winners will be announced in early July.

PM’s Literary Awards

Peter Garrett, Minister for the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts has announced the shortlist for the 2010 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards.

Mr Garrett said being shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards is a great achievement for authors that will bring further public recognition of their writing.

For the first time, Young Adult Fiction and Children’s Fiction categories have been added to the awards. Mr Garrett said, “this year we announce the inaugural Young Adult Fiction and Children’s Fiction awards. These two awards recognise the special talent that authors and illustrators of books for young audiences bring to the page. Importantly it is the quality of this storytelling through writing and illustration that engenders a life-long passion for reading”.

The Prime Minister’s Literary Awards provide a $100,000 prize for the winners of each of the categories:

Fiction shortlist
Summertime by J.M. Coetzee
The Book of Emmett by Deborah Forster
The Lake Woman by Alan Gould
Dog Boy by Eva Hornung
Ransom by David Malouf
Lovesong by Alex Miller
As the Earth turns Silver by Alison Wong

Read about the books, the authors and the judges comments for the Fiction shortlist here.

Non-Fiction shortlist
The Water Dreamers: The Remarkable History of Our Dry Continent by Michael Cathcart
Strange Places: A Memoir of Mental Illness by Will Elliott
The Colony: A History of Early Sydney by Grace Karskens
The Life and Death of Democracy by John Keane
The Blue Plateau: A Landscape Memoir by Mark Tredinnick
The Ghost at the Wedding by Shirley Walker

Read about the books, the authors and the judges comments for the Non-fiction shortlist here.

Young Adult Fiction shortlist
Stolen by Lucy Christopher
The Winds of Heaven by Judith Clarke
Confessions of a Liar, Thief and Failed Sex God by Bill Condon
The Museum of Mary Child by Cassandra Golds
Swerve by Phillip Gwynne
Jarvis 24 by David Metzenthen
Beatle meets Destiny by Gabrielle Williams

Read about the books, the authors and the judges comments for the Young Adult Fiction shortlist here.

Children’s Fiction shortlist
Cicada Summer by Kate Constable
The Terrible Plop written by Ursula Dubosarsky and illustrated by Andrew Joyner
Just Macbeth! written by Andy Griffiths and illustrated by Terry Denton
Mr Chicken goes to Paris by Leigh Hobbs
Running with the Horses by Alison Lester
Star Jumps by Lorraine Marwood
Mannie and the Long Brave Day written by Martine Murray and illustrated by Sally Rippin
Tensy Farlow and the Home for Mislaid Children by Jen Storer
Harry and Hopper written by Margaret Wild and illustrated by Freya Blackwood

Read about the books, the authors and the judges comments on the Children’s Fiction shortlist here.

Find out more about the shortlists here.