The 2012 Victorian Premier’s Awards Shortlist has been announced:
Prize for Fiction
- Foal’s Bread, Gillian Mears, see my review
- A History of Books, Gerald Murnane, see my review
- The Cook, Wayne Macauley, see my review
- Mateship with Birds, Carrie Tiffany, see my review
- All That I am, Anna Funder, see my review
- Cold Light, Frank Moorhouse, see my review
Prize for Non-Fiction
- The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia, Bill Gammage
- The Hall of Uselessness: Collected Essays, Simon Leys
- Her Father’s Daughter, Alice Pung, see Karenlee Thompson’s review
- Adelaide, Kerryn Goldsworthy
- 1835: The Founding of Melbourne and the Conquest of Australia & The Conquest of Australia, James Boyce, see my review
- True North: The Story of Mary and Elizabeth Durack, Brenda Niall
Prize for Writing for Young Adults
- All I Ever Wanted, Vikki Wakefield
- Shadow Girl, John Larkin
- The Shiny Guys Doug McLeod
Prize for Poetry
- Southern Barbarians, John Mateer
- Vishvarupa, Michelle Cahill
- Armour, John Kinsella
Prize for Drama
- National Interest, Aidan Fennessy
- A Golem Story, Lally Katz
- Boxman, Daniel Keene
Availability: Click the links on the titles.
To vote for your choice, visit the Wheeler Centre awards pages.
Congratulations to all the authors and publishers!
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog 
Are you game to take a punt on who the fiction winner will be Lisa?
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By: karenlee thompson on August 9, 2012
at 7:27 pm
It’s not often that I’ve read them all. I’m really pleased to see Carrie Tiffany and Wayne Macaulay getting recognition, this has been one of those years when some really deserving books have been swamped by others. But picking the winner? No, I’m not game!
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By: Lisa Hill on August 9, 2012
at 8:05 pm
It’s great to see The Cook getting some positive attention, I thought it was a fantastic book but it seems to have been largely overlooked in the prizes game.
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By: annabelsmith on August 10, 2012
at 10:53 am
Yes, I thought so too. Dare I say it, but many fine books by male authors have been overlooked this year…
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By: Lisa Hill on August 10, 2012
at 11:05 am
Ooooh! Dare you say it indeed! I can’t believe how little attention The Street Sweeper seems to have had. I thought it was one of the most powerful and compassionate Australian books I’ve ever read.
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By: annabelsmith on August 10, 2012
at 2:05 pm
Yes, and Mark Dapin’s Spirit House was brilliant writing which should have won something, and The Chemistry of Tears by Peter Carey was as well. Carey’s sales will take care of themselves, but I’d have liked Spirit House to get the attention it deserves.
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By: Lisa Hill on August 10, 2012
at 5:28 pm
I was actually deeply underwhelmed by the Carey. But I’ll check out Spirit House.
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By: annabelsmith on August 10, 2012
at 9:48 pm
I hadn’t liked anything by Carey for a while – had given up on him really, bought his books but never got round to reading them – but I liked the craziness of The Chemistry of Tears. It took me back to Oscar and Lucinda which was the first Carey I read.
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By: Lisa Hill on August 11, 2012
at 9:53 am
Oscar & Lucinda is my favourite Carey. I was really attached to those characters unlike the characters in TCOT. I also really liked Theft.
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By: annabelsmith on August 11, 2012
at 12:14 pm
What have they got against ‘The Street Sweeper’? I am frankly stumped – it is a wonderful book, and while I haven’t read much Aussie fiction this year, I find it extremely hard to believe that there are a whole host of better books eligible…
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By: Tony on August 10, 2012
at 9:21 pm
I couldn’t agree more.
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By: annabelsmith on August 10, 2012
at 9:48 pm
I think they always ignore non-Australian content in these competitions
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By: annabelsmith on August 10, 2012
at 9:50 pm
Tony, there was a very nasty review of The Street Sweeper in the US (I can’t remember which one now and I wouldn’t want anyone to go Googling for it anyway) and until local commentary on Twitter made him delete the post the review was promoted on the blog of one of Australia’s prominent reviewers (and a rival author, as many of them are) . Perhaps the US review was motivated by US outrage at the temerity of an outsider i.e. an Aussie novelist daring to critique American racism? There was also a foul newspaper competition at the time to find the most virulent review so perhaps the US reviewer was hoping to be a contender for that award? Whatever the reason – it can’t have been the book itself, it’s too good for that – the damage was done. Poor Perlman, he is such a great author but his Seven Types of Ambiguity (IMO his best book) copped a similar savaging from Peter Craven of all people, and that was influential in Australia though it didn’t stop the book winning all kinds of international awards.
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By: Lisa Hill on August 11, 2012
at 10:13 am
I’m so sorry to hear that. It deserves to be read without that kind of defensiveness.
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By: annabelsmith on August 11, 2012
at 12:17 pm
I didn’t know that. Horrible :(
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By: Tony on August 11, 2012
at 1:11 pm
[…] Niall because I love everything she’s written and it’s just been shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award and I want to encourage her to write more […]
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By: 2012 National Bookshop Day | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on August 11, 2018
at 5:10 pm