The short lists for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards were announced today and they include both well-known and emerging Australian writers:
Short list for Fiction
- Burning In Mireille Juchau
- El Dorado Dorothy Porter
- Jamaica: A novel Malcolm Knox
- Sorry Gail Jones
- The Complete Stories David Malouf
- The Widow and Her Hero Tom Keneally
- The Zookeeper’s War Steven Conte
Short list for Non-fiction
- A History of Queensland Raymond Evans
- Cultural Amnesia: Notes in the Margin of My Time Clive James
- My Life as a Traitor Zarah Ghahramani with Robert Hillman
- Napoleon: The Path to Power, 1769–1799 Philip Dwyer
- Ochre and Rust: Artefacts and Encounters on Australian Frontiers Philip Jones
- Shakespeare’s Wife Germaine Greer
- Vietnam: The Australian War Paul Ham
Independent publishers from Australia and abroad appear in both groups; you could say that short stories are represented by David Malouf and poetry is there through the work of Dorothy Porter. Since the PM will have the last word(s), I’m wondering if they’ll be Sorry and Ochre and Rust.
My book didn’t make the cut, but it was like being in the Olympics and I’m glad that Back Burning was one of the 91 fiction submissions. My publisher is taking care of my royalty donation to the Indigenous Literacy Project, so thanks to all those who bought my book, thus allowing it to be considered. Getting nowhere isn’t so bad when you know that your stories are being read and you’re helping a good cause. Onwards!
