Welcome to LiteraryAwards.com.au covering the Australian Literary A
ward Scene from A-Z. Sign-up for our Global Literary Award News Service to Stay One-Step Ahead. Winners. Shortlists. News.
If you are looking for major overseas prizes, they have been reassigned to their 'home turf sites' as it was all getting too unwieldy with some 200 awards now covered. Check out our sister book award sites in the UK, the USA and the newly birthed Canadian Literary Prize scene site CanLitAwards.com. Nice neat lists and a globally, genre organised award index coming soon - honestly! I had no idea how big the literary award scene was and will draw a line in the sand with this hobby that became a passion then an obsession. Enjoy perusing the creamof the crop. Kevin Parker - Site Publisher.
London 14th October The White Tiger, a debut novel by Aravind Adiga, and the bookies favourite, has won the 2008 Man Booker prize and with it the £50,000 prize. The novel is described as a ‘compelling, angry and darkly humorous’ novel about a man’s journey from Indian village life to entrepreneurial success. It was described by one reviewer as an ‘unadorned portrait’ of India seen ‘from the bottom of the heap’.
Melbourne's, Steve Tolz's, A Fraction of the Whole, was shortlisted whilst Michelle de Kretser's, The Lost Dog, made the long list.
Full details | Blog: Booker Vigilantes? Where's Wally the 'Poncey' Academic Judge?
0ctober 12th- It's was frenzy time for Crime/Mystery Genre Heads over the weekend in Baltimore, USA, as four major awards, The Barry, Macavity, Anthony and Shamus award winners were announced. The big winners were Laura Lippman's What the Dead Know, which took out three major awards and newcomer Tana French (raised in Ireland amongst other countries) whose, In the Woods, also took out three majors.
Full winners and short lists | Blog Commentary: A Torrent of Mystery Awards
French Writer Wins 2008 Nobel Prize 
PARIS — 9th October, Paris - The Swedish Academy on Thursday awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize for literature to Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio (right) , a cosmopolitan and prolific French novelist, children’s author and essayist regarded by many French readers and critics as one of the country’s greatest living writers. more A look athe life and work of Le Clézio
International Literary Award Round-Up - Latest Canada's Giller Prize Shortlist more
Australian Literary Award News
Tim Winton's, Breath , Wins the Inaugural $19,000 ‘Indie’ Award' 
7th Oct- Tim Winton's, Breath, already a winner of the Age Book of the Year Fiction Award, can now add the inaugural Australia’s independent booksellers 'Indie Award'to it's honour list. The $19,000 prize for the Best Australian Book of the past 12 months has been donated entirely by over 120 independent booksellers across the country, underlining their commitment to Australian books and writers. Go you good thing! Tim Winton said independent booksellers have supported him throughout his career: more including book details, shortlist and review links
2008 Northern Territory Literary Awards Winners: Territory historian takes out top literary prize
A TERRITORY historian has taken out the NT's top literary prize, just weeks after winning the inaugural Prime Minister's Literary Award.
October 6th- Ochre and Rust: Artefacts and Encounters on Australian Frontiers, by Philip Jones (right) has won the 2008 Chief Minister's NT History Book Award. The book also won the Non-Fiction Award in the very first Australian Prime Minister's Literary Awards announced on September 12th.
The History Award is one of seven categories of local or Northern Territory related works that are recognised each year. Full lists and details
Petrov Affair Novel- Document Z, Wins $50,000 Australian/Vogel Literary Award for 2008.
19th September- Melbourne University creative writing PHd candidate, Andrew Croome, has been awarded Australia's leading prize for an unpublished manuscript by a writer under 35.
Croome, 28, who was born in Canberra but grew up in Hobart and Albury-Wodonga, spent three years writing Document Z, which is based on the infamous Petrov affair of the 1950's.
The judges described the novel which will be published next year by Allen & Unwin as ''emotionally and politically complex'' with ''a brooding atmosphere of shadows and spooks''. More
Queensland Premier's Literary Prize Winner s: Controversial Requiem for a Beast Wins Young Adults Award
17th September- Matt Ottley's Requiem for a Beast 'naughty' words content caused a bit of a stir when it won a Children's Book Council Award a few weeks back. Even better sales should be guaranteed following it's $15,000 win in the Young Adult category of 2008 Queensland Premiers Literary Prizes just announced.
note: Our local library is obviously not too bothered as it was available on the 'New Arrivals' shelf. Have now read it, or rather 'experienced' it - sensational. Get thee back to thy caves of mangled thoughts thou critics so full of pious rantings...Hurrumph. KJP
Helen Garner Knocks Off Local Favourite For Fiction Prize.
Melbourne author, Helen Garner (left), won the $25,000 Fiction award for The Spare room, already a winner of a $30,000 2008 Victorian Premier's prize. Some locals were surprised that Courier Mail journo', Matthew Condon's, The Trout Opera (previously shortlisted for the Miles) didn't get the prize - at least according to the Courier Mail.
All in all a generous $225,000 of Queensland tax payers treasury contributions were dispersed to 14 category winners: it's a golden age for literary prizes in the land of OZ. Thank God the economy is sound...........
Full Winners lists | Commentary Book Award Tragic Blog
12th Sept-Out With the Old and In With the New as Inaugural PM's Literary Award Winners Announced -
Out with the old, and in with the new as all the favourites for the inaugural Prime Minister's Literary Award were left in the dust. James,
Greer, Keneally, Malouf and Porter were bested by a couple of unknown authors as the Rudd Literarti anointed historian Philip Jones, and, the man who turned his Phd into a novel, Steve Conte (left), as the inaugural prize winners.
Both authors are $100,000 better off today- more than enough for typewriter ribbons and a fresh set of pencils each. Spare a thought for Gail Jones whose fine work, Sorry, wins our 'bridesmaid' award having been shortlisted for more prizes this year than we care to recount. The same applies to Thomas Keneally's, The Widow and Her Hero, which seems destined not to pick-up the main prize this year.
The winners are:
Non-fiction:
Ochre and Rust: Artefacts and Encounters on Australian Frontiers Philip Jones
Fiction winner:
The Zookeeper's War Steven Conte
Ned Kelly 'The Neddies' Crime Book Awards Announced- 3rd Sept
The 2008 winners are:
Fiction
Shatter, Michael Robotham (Little, Brown)
First Novel
The Low Road, Chris Womersley (Scribe)
Non-Fiction
Red Centre, Dark Heart, Evan McHugh (Viking)
Lifetime Achievement Award
Marele Day
Full Neddies short lists>>
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Victorian Premier Kicks off Adult Aussie Book Awards Season Finals-
September 2nd- It's finals time, not just for the footie, but for Book Awards World too. Victorian Premier. John Brumby, has got the show underway announcing the winners of the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards.
Helen Garner's The Spare Room, fictional, but, apparently 'not so fictional story' of a woman dying of cancer took out the Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction.
Tasmanian novelist Richard Flanagan used the ceremony, at which he received the journalism prize, to reiterate his call for the equivalent of a royal commission into the relationship between the Tasmanian forest industry and the Tasmanian Government in order to restore trust and end the destruction of "Australia's garden of Eden".
Flanagan received the award for 'Out of Control: The Tragedy of Tasmania's Forests', in which he exposed links between political parties and Gunns, the company behind the controversial Tamar Valley pulp mill, and their impact on the Tasmanian wilderness. Full lists>>
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Tim Winton's Breath Picks-up First of Many Book Awards
23rd August- Tim Winton's best seller Breath, has won the Age Book of the Year Fiction Award- 'Book Award Tragic', doesn't feel he is going out on to much of a limb to suggest that it will be the first of many. The winners are:
Non-fiction Award - Don Watson American Journeys
Fiction Award - Tim Winton Breath
Dinny O'Hearn Poetry Prize - JS Harry Not Finding Wittgenstein Age award page>
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The Children's Book Council of Australia has announced its 2008 book award winners, praising the entries as "rich with ground breaking material".
August 15th- Already a winner of the most prestigious
international Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, Sonya Hartnett (right), has now won Book of the Year in the CBCA older readers category. Her winning book, The Ghost's Child, tells the story of an old lady whose past is unravelled after she is visited by a young boy who is a ghost.
In the Book of the Year younger readers category, Carole Wilkinson has won with Dragon Moon, the conclusion of her fantasy trilogy Dragon Keeper, which feature the adventures of a slave girl and an aging dragon.
Other book award winners are:
Book of the Year, early childhood: Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley by Aaron Blabey.
Picture Book of the Year: Requiem for a Beast by Matt Ottley.
Eve Pownall Award for Information Books: Parsley Rabbit's Book about Books by Frances Watts. Full CBCA Lists>>
Queensland Premier's Shortlists- Carey, Winton ( Tim W.left), Coetzee et al in a Strong Line-up. 15th August Full Lists>>
Victorian Premiers Shortlists- It's that Lost Dog and that Napoleon Bloke in the Running Once more>> August 11th- Full Lists>>
Prime Minister's Literary Award Shortlists
August 6th- The Federal Arts Minister, Peter Garrett, has announced the short list for the inaugural 2008 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. Full lists>>>
Michelle de Kretser's The Lost Dog & Steve Tolz's Fraction of the Whole Chance for 2008 Booker
29th July-MICHELLE DE KRETSER'S love story about a young Indian-Australian, The Lost Dog, winner of both the 2008 NSW Premier's Book of the Year and the prestigious $40,000 Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, has now been longlisted for the 2008 Man Booker Prize. Sydney screenwriter, Steve Tolz, has also been nominated for his first novel, A Fraction of the Whole. Full Longlist UK sister site>>
Full lists and book descriptions>>
International Fame for Shaun Tan's, The Arrival: Wins Prestigious Boston Globe
June 19th-Already a winner in the NSW & WA Premier's Award, Australian Shaun Tan can now add a prestigious American Boston Globe to his trophy shelf for his engrossing graphic novel. He was in some illustrious company. Full story>>
19th May- In a total boil over, Michelle De Kretser's (left)engaging love story, Lost Dog, has taken out the double for the 2008 NSW Premier's Book of the Year and the Christina Stead. Tom Griffith's, Slicing the Silence: Voyaging to Antarctica won the $40,000 Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-fiction amongst the ten category winners. Full story>>
International Literary Award Scene
Kidslit- UK Booktrusted Early Years Winners- London 24th Sept- more
Canada's Big One- The Giller Prize Shortlist
7th October - Nearly 2 million Canadians watched last years Giller Prize ceremony on TV! Worth $50,000 Canadian dollars it is their equivalent of the Miles or the Booker Prize. Over 100 media representatives were at the short list announcement alone. Amongst the five finalists is Dublin International IMPAC winner, Rawi Hage with his latest book, Cockroach.
Full list and details |
£60,000 Dylan Thomas Shortlist Announced
17th Sept- The shortlist
of six has been announced for this years Dylan Thomas
Prize for the best published writer in English under 30 from anywhere in the world. Full details | Comment Book Award Tragic Blog
Booker Shortlist: Steve Tolz's, A Fraction of the Whole, Makes Final Cut
10th September- Two first-time novelists, Aravind Adiga and Australian Steve Toltz, survived the cull of the longlist from thirteen novels to just six. Previous winners of the Booker Prize, John Berger and Salman Rushdie, failed to make this year's shortlist and Sebastian Barry is the only novelist shortlisted for this year's prize to have been previously shortlisted (in 2005).
Linda Grant, winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2000 and longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2002, is the only female author to make the shortlist of six. She is joined by Philip Hensher, longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2002 and a Booker judge in 2001, and the widely-acclaimed Indian writer Amitav Ghosh.
The Man Booker Prize 2008 shortlisted novels are:
Aravind Adiga The White Tiger (Atlantic)
Sebastian Barry The Secret Scripture (Faber and Faber)
Amitav Ghosh Sea of Poppies (John Murray)
Linda Grant The Clothes on Their Backs (Virago)
Philip Hensher The Northern Clemency (Fourth Estate)
Steve Toltz A Fraction of the Whole (Hamish Hamilton)
Book Details from Seek Books Australia Man Booker Page>>
or Literary Awards UK
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The Suspicions of Mr Whicher wins UK £30,000 Samuel Johnson prize
July 15- Melodrama, murder, suspense and courtroom drama suffuse the book that has been awarded the UK's Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction.
Kate Summerscale's The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: or the Murder at Road Hill House beat the favourite for the award - Patrick French's biography of VS Naipaul - to take-out a cheque for £30,000 in this the world's richest non-fiction prize. The winning book presents a detailed account of famous 1860 murder of a three-year-old child of a respectable middle-class family. Saville Kent, the child,disappeared from his bedroom at night and was later found stuffed down a servants' privy in the grounds of the house. As events unfold, suspicions become focused on the family and household servants: was this gruesome murder an inside job? Full story on this book award and other shortlisted titles www.literaryawards.co.uk>>
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Rushdie's Midnight's Children Wins Best Ever Booker
10th July, London-Salman Rushdie has beaten five other fellow literary heavyweights, including Peter Carey, to win the Best of Booker Prize for his path-breaking novel Midnight's Children. Readers from across the world, defying the conventional wisdom that it is a “difficult” read, voted it as their favourite. Rushdie is currently in the US to promote his new book The Enchantress of Florence ...Full story UK sister site>>
Frances Fyfield Wins £20,000 CWA Duncan Lawrie Dagger-
London-July 10- Frances Fyfield has won the Crime Writers Association £20,000 Duncan Lawrie Dagger for her novel Blood from Stone. The International Duncan Lawrie Dagger has gone to Dominique Manotti with Lorraine Connection, translated from the French by Amanda Hopkinson and Ros Schwartz.
There were six other category winners. Full lists and story>>
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Arthurian Legend Wins Britain's 'Booker of the Playground' - The Carnegie Medal 26th June,2008, London-A book which casts King Arthur as a bloodthirsty tyrant and Merlin as his political spin doctor has won the 2008 Carnegie Medal for children's literature. Here Lies Arthur , by Philip Reeve is a dark re-telling of the Arthurian legend and a far cry from Camelot with some of his characters bearing more than a passing resemblance to modern-day political figures.Full story>>
Emily Gravetts Brave Mouse Wins Kate Greenaway Illustrators Medal for 2008- June 26th, London Emily Gravett, has been awarded the Kate Greenaway for the second time ,. She is a widely acclaimed illustrator with numerous other awards to her name. Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears tells the story of a small rodent who realises the humans who terrify him are just as terrified as he is. Story>>
Miles Franklin Winner: Steve Carroll Wins with The Time We Have Taken
June 19th. It's third time lucky for Steven Carroll, who has become a first-time winner of Australia's most prestigious book prize, the Miles Franklin Literary Award. The Victorian, who came close to winning in 2002 and 2005, was awarded the honour for his sixth novel - The Time We Have Taken which continues the story which began in the Art of the Engine Driver and progressed in The Gift of Speed. Full story>>
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Junot Diaz's Wondrous Life Wins the 2008 Pulitzer for Fiction He was hailed a genius in the making- but it was ten years between his first and second published works. Now Junot Diaz's The Brief Wonderful Life of Oscar Wao has won the Pulitzer.
Other worth winners included, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 by Daniel Walker Howe in the History category and Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father by John Matteson in Biography. Pulitzer winners list & story>>.
2008 Adelaide Festival Literary Awards -Quality First as Sydney Poet Triumphs
The biennial Adelaide Festival Literary Awards produced a fine crop of winners for 2008. Sydney based poet, John Tranter's , Urban Myths, won the poetry category and also took out the top SA Premier's Prize . Last year Urban Myths won the Kenneth Slessor award in the the NSW Premiers.
Roger McDonald's, The Ballad of Desmond Kale took out the fiction prize in amongst the ten first prizes and fellowships given . Full winners list and story>>
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Hugo Cabret Glory Wagon Rolls On- The Caldecott Medal for 2008 has gone to the gorgeous Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick a novel that he not only wrote but illustrated too- clever man. It is the first time that a novel has won the prize. Just a glance at the covers of the Caldecott Honor books that Mr. Selznick beat to the main will give an idea of the talent in illustration circles. Full story >>
Non-fiction Watch- CIA Under Microscope- New York Times journalist & former Pulitzer Prize winner Tim Weiner's tell-all book, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, won the 2007 US National Book Award and continues to sell well. Find out why with our summary and review links on the National Award USA sister site>>
Book Critics Circle Quality Winners
The National Critics Book Circle Awards are highly regarded in America, sitting alongside the Pulitzer and the National Book Award as the most prestigious of awards. This years winners reflect an enduring quality that has been evident since their inauguration in 1975. This year they anticipated the Pulitzer Prize Fiction winner, The Brief Wonderful Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz and also recognised the potent, Brother, I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat in the nonfiction category. Full lists & story>>
Formidable Lessing Wins Nobel Prize for Literature - A Retrospective Look at the Laureate's
Now well into her eighties, Doris Lessing's opus quite rightly won her the 2007 Nobel. To celebrate I have put together some facts and figures about her life and publications set off by a slide show of over 50 of her published works for your edification. Lovely memories. The photo to the left shows a young Lessing taken in 1962. Didn't realise that I'd read so many - enjoy KJP. Take me to the Retro>>
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disagree with their Foreign & Economic Policies (hard not too at the moment), but America has a culturally aware and healthy democratic Book Award Scene. Check it out for yourself at BookAwardsOnline 40+ US Awards covered including the Pulitzer Prize etc.
they like to call it, is vibrant with works of the highest quality taking-out the majors. With 60+ awards covered check it out for yourself at CanLitAwards.com
Is Europe really the centre of literary centre of the world as one of this years Noble Judges has said? Well, we don't think so you snobberlitterarti type! But, you have to hand it to the Brits, they have some fantastic Book Awards such as the Samuel Johnson, Booker, Orange, Costa and some lovely children's prizes too. Check out over 30 leading UK & Irish awards: (Yes, we know there is more to Europe than the UK..)
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