Prime Minister's Literary Awards eNewsletter - January 2012

PMLA now on Facebook

In 2012 the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards are making it easier to stay up-to-date with all the Awards news and announcements through our new Facebook page.

You can find information on the different categories, past winners, the judges, upcoming events and other news from the writing sector.

Another way to stay up-to-date with the latest Awards announcements and other arts and culture news is by following us on Twitter. Over 4000 tweeters already follow us and anyone interested in finding out more about arts and culture initiatives and funding are encouraged to join us there too – @artsculturegov or #PMAwards . The Awards celebrate the contribution Australian literature makes to the nation’s cultural and intellectual life. This year there are six awards categories, including a new poetry award and the recently incorporated Prize for Australian History.

Entries close 1 February 2012. For more information make sure you visit our website, the new Facebook page or our Twitter feed.

The National Year of Reading is here!

Several thousand events, campaigns and activities will be staged across Australia this year to celebrate reading as part of the National Year of Reading.

The initiative will be officially launched on 14 February 2012 but many activities are already underway. Local libraries, schools, bookshops and community groups are hosting events and activities throughout the year to help foster a reading culture in all Australian homes.

In addition to local events there are four national programs: a competition for primary school children based on Alison Lester’s much-loved picture book Are we there yet?; a peer-to-peer book recommendations project for teens; and the Our Story and workplace literacy programs for adults.

The Reading Hour on 25 August 2012 will encourage parents and grandparents to share a book with their children for at least an hour each week and a public library membership drive will encourage people to join their local library dispelling the myth that libraries are a ‘scary place to go’ if you can’t read or write well.

For more information about the National Year of Reading and to find events in your part of Australia, visit www.love2read.org.au.

Prize for Australian History

Don’t forget the Prize for Australian History is now part of the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. This Prize is awarded to an individual or a group for an outstanding publication or body of work that contributes significantly to an understanding of Australian history – and it’s not just for books.  Eligible works can include a published book, website, film or radio documentary, CD-ROM, DVD, other form of multimedia or a series of these works.

To be eligible, the work must be first published, produced or broadcast between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2011.

Entries close 1 February 2012. To enter or for more information, visit our website.

Want to find out more about the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards? Visit the PMLA website or follow us on Twitter or Facebook.

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