ANZ LitLovers LitBlog

The 2013 Queensland Literary Awards shortlists have been announced:

Fiction book award

• The Voyage (Murray Bail, Text), see my review and a Sensational Snippet
• My Hundred Lovers (Susan Johnson, A&U), see combined reviews and Meet an Aussie Author: Susan Johnson
• Lost Voices (Christopher Koch, HarperCollins), see my review
• Mullumbimby (Melissa Lucashenko, UQP), see my review

Nonfiction book award

• Give Me Excess of it (Richard Gill, Pan)
• Sandakan: The Untold Story of the Sandakan Death Marches (Paul Ham, William Heinemann)
• Gough Whitlam: His Time (Jenny Hocking, Miegunyah)
• Boy, Lost: A Family Memoir (Kristina Olsson, UQP)
• Madness: A Memoir (Kate Richards, Viking)

History book award

• The Ambitions of Jane Franklin Victorian Lady Adventurer (Alison Alexander, A&U)
• Antarctica: A Biography (David Day, OUP)
• Children of the Occupation: Japan’s Untold Story (Walter Hamilton, NewSouth)
• Our Stories are Survival (Lawrence Bamblett, Aboriginal Studies Press)
• The Flash of Recognition: Photography and the Emergence of Indigenous Rights (Jane Lydon, NewSouth)

Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a poetry collection

• Eldershaw (Stephen Edgar, Black Pepper)
• Hotel Hyperion (Lisa Gorton, Giramondo) (Sorry, I can’t find this at Fishpond or on the Giramondo site).
• Jam Tree Gully: Poems (John Kinsella, W W Norton)
• Liquid Nitrogen (Jennifer Maiden, Giramondo), see Amber Beilharz’s guest review
• Prepare the Cabin for Landing (Alan Wearne, Giramondo)

The Steele Rudd Award for an Australian short story collection

• Like a House on Fire (Cate Kennedy, Scribe)
• An Unknown Sky and Other Stories (Susan Midalia, UWA Publishing), see Karenlee Thompson’s guest review
• The Rest is Weight (Jennifer Mills, UQP), see Karenlee Thompson’s guest review
• Las Vegas for Vegans (A S Patric, Transit Lounge), see my thoughts from the book launch
• We are Not the Same Anymore (Chris Somerville, UQP)

Young adult book award

• A Corner of White (Jaclyn Moriarty, Macmillan)
• Ship Kings: The Voyage of the Unquiet Ice (Andrew McGahan, A&U)
• The Convent (Maureen McCarthy, A&U)
• Friday Brown (Vikki Wakefield, Text)
• Wildlife (Fiona Wood, Pan)

Children’s book award

• Pennies for Hitler (Jackie French, HarperCollins)
• Today We Have No Plans (Jane Godwin, illus by Anna Walker, Viking)
• Pookie Aleera is Not My Boyfriend (Steven Herrick, UQP)
• Don’t Let a Spoonbill in the Kitchen! (Narelle Oliver, Scholastic)
• The Treasure Box (Margaret Wild, illus by Freya Blackwood, Viking)

Emerging Queensland author manuscript award

• Gap (Rebecca Jessen)
• Cockscrew Section (Jarryd Luke)
• The Promise Seed (Cass Moriarty)

David Unaipon Award for an unpublished Indigenous writer

• Sugar Shed Road (Martin Doyle)
• Could Be Worse (Adrian Stanley)
• Hard (Ellen Van Neerven)
• Heat and Light (Ellen Van Neervan)
• My Journey that May Never End (Dorothy Williams-Kemp).

Each category winner will receive a cash prize of $5000.

For more information about the awards (judges comments), click here.

PS Special thanks to guest reviewers Karenlee and Amber who have contributed to this roundup with their reviews of short story and poetry collections.