I think that there will be readers all over Australia very pleased to see the winner of the Fiction prize in the 2015 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. Joan London is one of our finest writers and The Golden Age has finally got the recognition it deserves.
The winners are:
Fiction
- The Golden Age by Joan London (Random House Australia) (see my review and a Sensational Snippet)
Poetry
- Poems 1957‐2013 by Geoffrey Lehmann (UWA Publishing)
Prize for Australian History – joint winners
- Charles Bean by Ross Coulthart (Harper Collins)
- The Spy Catchers – The Official History of ASIO Vol 1 by David Horner (Allen & Unwin)
Non‐fiction – joint winners
- John Olsen: An Artist’s Life, Darleen Bungey (Harper Collins)
- Wild Bleak Bohemia: Marcus Clarke, Adam Lindsay Gordon and Henry Kendall, Michael Wilding (Australian Scholarly Publishing)
Young adult fiction
- The Protected by Claire Zorn (University of Queensland Press)
Children’s fiction
- One Minute’s Silence by David Metzenthen and illustrated by Michael Camilleri (Allen & Unwin)
Congratulations to all the authors, editors and publishers, and to the nominees too.
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog 
Another good reason to read ‘The Golden Age’. Joan London is a wonderful writer which I say after reading her ‘Gilgamesh’.
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By: Anokatony on December 15, 2015
at 6:55 am
Hooray!!!!! I can’t understand why Joan London has been passed over so consistently in this year’s awards. Good to see that a book published by Australian scholarly publishing earned an award .
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By: residentjudge on December 15, 2015
at 7:14 am
Couldn’t agree more. Joan London should have won the Miles Franklin but it seems they are determined to reward novels about flavour-of-the-month social ills. LOL We can expect something about domestic violence to win it next year for sure, whether it’s any good or not..
I like the sound of both the NF winners, but I admit to being more interested in the Olsen book. I haven’t read an art bio for ages (unless you count Acute Misfortune, but that was really more about other things).
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By: Lisa Hill on December 15, 2015
at 7:47 am