Awards short list to be announced
The Arts Minister will announce the 2008 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards short list at the Mitchell Library in Sydney at 2pm on 6th August 2008.
The Minister says the 2008 short list contains an impressive selection of quality Australian works from both established and emerging writers, reflecting a great wealth of local literary talent.
The chair of the fiction judging panel, Professor Peter Pierce and panel members, broadcaster Margaret Throsby and author John Marsden have praised the quality of the 91 fiction entries.
“We have found that well over half the entries from young adult fiction, to first novels to thirtieth novels, were very good quality, indicating Australian fiction is in a very healthy state,” Pierce (photo left) said.
John Marsden (photo right) said what surprised him about the entries “was the confidence amongst our authors in writing about the world at large. I was just blown away by the overall quality, and shocked by these obscure novels from unknown writers which were brilliant.”
“As well as honouring established authors these awards will provide opportunities to recognise the contribution of emerging writers, and of people who have been writing for many years but who haven’t had the recognition,” Marsden said.
For Margaret Throsby (photo left) the hardest thing about judging the awards was just the sheer volume of entries. “The day the delivery man arrived at my house with one box of books and told me there were seven more boxes to come, was I think the hardest moment,” Throsby commented.
Professor Pierce believes the awards are an important initiative on both a symbolic and practical level. “Australia is recognising not just horse racing and cricket but books and reading as well,” he said.
The Australian Government has introduced the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards to celebrate the major contribution of Australian literature to the nation’s cultural and intellectual life. These prestigious awards offer a tax free prize of $100,000 for the two fiction and non-fiction works judged to be of the highest literary merit.
In our next e-newsletter we’ll take a look at the 103 non-fiction works entered in this year’s Prime Minister’s Literary Awards.
To view the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards short list after 2pm on the 6th August or to have a friend subscribe to this e-newsletter visit www.arts.gov.au/pmliteraryawards.
