ANZ LitLovers LitBlog

The Prime Minister’s Literary Awards shortlist was announced today, and I can only breathe a sigh of relief that Australian Prime Ministers can come and go but an army of bureaucrats make sure that the important things still get done!

Fiction

I’ve read all of these and I loved them all, but Border Districts is my pick for the award, for all the reasons I’ve said before.

• A Long Way from Home, by Peter Carey (Penguin Random House), see my review
• The Life to Come, by Michelle de Kretser (Allen & Unwin) winner of the 2018 Miles Franklin, see my review
• First Person, by Richard Flanagan (Penguin Random House), see my review
• Border districts, by Gerald Murnane (Giramondo), see my review 
• Taboo, by Kim Scott (Pan Macmillan), see my review)

Non-fiction

An epic fail for ANZ LitLovers, I haven’t read any of them, and none of them are on my TBR.

• Unbreakable, by Jelena Dokic and Jessica Halloran (Penguin Random House)
• Mischka’s war: A European odyssey of the 1940s, by Sheila Fitzpatrick (University of Melbourne Publishing)
• The library: A catalogue of wonders, by Stuart Kells (Text Publishing) I haven’t read this, but I attended an author event about it at the Brighton Library on Library Lovers’ Day
• No front line: Australia’s special forces at war in Afghanistan, by Chris Masters (Allen & Unwin)
• Asia’s reckoning, by Richard McGregor (Penguin Random House UK)

Australian history

EpicFail #2

• The Enigmatic Mr Deakin, by Judith Brett (Text Publishing), see Nathan’s review at A Biographer in Perth 
• John Curtin’s war: The coming of war in the Pacific, and reinventing Australia, Volume 1, by John Edwards (Penguin Random House
• Hidden in plain view: The Aboriginal people of coastal Sydney, by Paul Irish (New South Publishing)
• Beautiful Balts: From Displaced Persons to New Australians, by Jayne Persian (New South Publishing)
• Indigenous and other Australians since 1901, by Timothy Rowse (New South Publishing)

Poetry

I’m delighted to see Brian Castro’s Blindness and Rage here, I loved that book!

• Archipelago, by Adam Aitken (Vagabond Press), see Tony’s review at Messy Booker
• Chatelaine, by Bonny Cassidy (Giramondo Publishing)
• Blindness and Rage: A phantasmagoria, by Brian Castro (Giramondo Publishing), see my review
• Transparencies, by Stephen Edgar (Black Pepper)
• Domestic Interior, by Fiona Wright (Giramondo Publishing)

Children’s literature

(I’m hoping my library will have a display of these and I can take a quick peek before someone borrows them.  I like the sound of Pea Pod Lullaby but it’s good to see new names that I don’t recognise from my days in the school library).

• Storm Whale, by Sarah Brennan and Jane Tanner (Allen & Unwin)
• Feathers, by Phil Cummings and Phil Lesnie (Scholastic Australia)
• Figgy Takes the City, by Tamsin Janu (Scholastic Australia)
• Pea Pod Lullaby, by Glenda Millard and Stephen Michael King (Allen & Unwin)
• Hark, It’s Me, Ruby Lee! by Lisa Shanahan and Binny Talib (Hachette Australia)

YA

It looks like Allen & Unwin, Scholastic and Hachette have scooped the pool in Children’s Lit and YA, but fair enough, they are great supporters of quality children’s books and YA.

• My Lovely Frankie, by Judith Clarke (Allen & Unwin)
• Living on Hope Street, by Demet Divaroren (Allen & Unwin)
• The Ones that Disappeared, by Zana Fraillon (Hachette Australia)
• Ruben, by Bruce Whatley (Scholastic Australia)
• This is My Song, by Richard Yaxley (Scholastic Australia)

This PM’s Award is a beauty: winners receive $80,000 and shortlisted authors get $5000.  And it’s tax free:)

For more information, visit the website.