This is old news, I’m afraid, but I didn’t know about the winners of the 2017 Tasmanian Premier’s Literary Prizes winners until the Tasmanian Writers Centre newsletter hit my inbox tonight. I have a horrid feeling that funding cuts are limiting the activities of the TWC: a pinned Tweet @TasWriters from May 5th says Our Comms Team is in transition so we’re not as active on here as normal and there’s been nothing there since October 14th. If I’m right about that, (and I’ll be only too delighted to be told that I’m wrong) this is a bad omen for Tasmanian authors, which has been a powerhouse of Australian literature for a very long time.
Anyway, at the incongruously named Tasmanian ‘Industry Development’ website, the news is that the winners of the 2017 Tasmanian Premier’s Literary Prizes are as follows:
Tasmania Book Prize
For best book with Tasmanian content in any genre – $25 000. This award is supported by the Tasmanian Government.
Winner: Into the Heart of Tasmania: A Search for Human Antiquity by Rebe Taylor, published by Melbourne University Press, see my review
Margaret Scott Prize
For best book by a Tasmanian writer – $5 000. This award is supported by the University of Tasmania.
Winner: The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose, published by Allen & Unwin, see my review
University of Tasmania Prize
For the best new unpublished literary work by an emerging Tasmanian writer – $5 000. This award is supported by the University of Tasmania.
Winner: Brodsky Dies by Adam Ouston
I’m posting the summary from the website because I can’t find a review of it anywhere:
Brodsky Dies is a dark comedy—you might even call it a slapstick nightmare—that follows ageing professor of European literature, Bruce Brodsky, from Australia to Austria and Germany where he has been invited to interview the reclusive author Georg Winter. Nobody knows who Winter is; speculation about his identity is rife. There have been hoaxes before. Brodsky, in declining health and put out to pasture by his university, accepts Winter’s invitation and decides to go, fearing all the way that the whole thing is a joke at his expense being played on him by his old academic rivals. The novel is about contemporary travel, tourism, and the quest for authenticity, Australian visions of Europe, cultural exchange, the literary life and, at the end of it all, love.
Tasmanian Young writer’s Fellowship
This award is supported by private philanthropists and is awarded to a young writer (aged 30 years and under) – $5 000.
Winner: Erin Hortle
… a Hobart-based writer of fiction and essay and a Creative Writing PhD student at the University of Tasmania. Her writing has been featured in many publications throughout Australia, including Overland, Kill Your Darlings, Island, White Horses and Transportation…
2017 People’s Choice Awards
People’s Choice Winner – Tasmania Book Prize: Losing Streak by by James Boyce (Black Inc.)
People’s Choice Winner – Margaret Scott Prize: The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose (Allen & Unwin)
People’s Choice Winner – University of Tasmania Prize: A Guide to Bushwalking in Tasmania by Ben Walter
PS If you can afford to do so, please make a tax-deductible donation to the TWC. Tassie is our smallest state, and the least wealthy. Click here.
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog 
The TWC did lose funding. They lost their library room but still have all the books. They are open 4 days a week instead of 5. They are still in existence. They should change their name to Tas Footy Club and then they would get all kinds of funding. Governments are just so useless at prioitising some of the time. They don’t seem to have a clue about the lit industry and talent in this state. If you can’t score a goal with it they dont want to know. Who know if half of them can even read!!🐧🐧🐧
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By: travellinpenguin on December 4, 2017
at 9:12 pm
Oh damn, I am sorry to hear that. So they have books but no venue? How on earth do they manage?
I can’t speak for the workshops and events that they run, but they used to do a monthly feature of books by email and that’s how I got to hear about some titles and reviewed them. I can understand a cash-strapped government having to make some cuts but there are some wealthy people in Tassie who could afford to be philanthropic and help out.
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By: Lisa Hill on December 4, 2017
at 9:16 pm
Brodsky Dies sounds like something I might enjoy but it doesn’t appear to be on Amazon (yet)
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By: Guy Savage on December 5, 2017
at 4:17 am
Now I see ‘unpublished’ oh well.
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By: Guy Savage on December 5, 2017
at 4:20 am
Don’t you hate that?!
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By: Lisa Hill on December 5, 2017
at 10:21 am
YES.
Did you see that the premiere of A French Village season 7 has been announced.
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By: Guy Savage on December 5, 2017
at 10:24 am
Huh? I thought the series was finished?
As I understand it, there were 7 series screened on TV, but series 1 & 2 were packaged together for DVD 1, which meant that the whole series (which I’ve got) consisted of 6 DVDs, the last one being Series 7 which shows you what happened after the war when collaborators were put on trial etc.
So is there now another one, following on from that, or is it just confusion caused by the packaging of series 1 & 2 together?
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By: Lisa Hill on December 5, 2017
at 10:35 am
Audrey Fleurot in season 7 of ‘A French Village’
‘A French Village’ Season 7: Premiere Date Set
The final season of A French Village (Un Village Français) comes to an emotional and dramatic end when season 7 premieres exclusively on MHz Choice!
No it sounds like another one…
http://www.mhzchoice.com/wordpress/a-french-village-season-7-premiere-date-set/?utm_source=MHz-Master-Newsletter-List&utm_campaign=9c45c2a1e4-MHz-ALL-A-French-Village-S7-Prem-120417&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c489b95fe9-9c45c2a1e4-281059241&goal=0_c489b95fe9-9c45c2a1e4-281059241&mc_cid=9c45c2a1e4&mc_eid=ceff0d0920
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By: Guy Savage on December 5, 2017
at 2:59 pm
No, you’re right… this looks like a season where they’re all much older, revisiting the past. I hope the script is better than the makeup ageing effects…
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By: Lisa Hill on December 5, 2017
at 3:45 pm
We live in hope.
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By: Guy Savage on December 6, 2017
at 12:37 pm
Yay for The Museum of Modern Love, a truly unique book (and one that I’ve pressed on so many people).
Devastating that funding is being pulled from TWC – very hard to regain once lost.
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By: Kate W on December 5, 2017
at 7:47 pm
Yes, and so short-sighted.
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By: Lisa Hill on December 5, 2017
at 8:14 pm