ANZ LitLovers LitBlog

My goodness, it’s a busy night tonight!

The 2021 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) Longlist has been announced. A shortlist will be released on Monday 12 April, with winners announced on Wednesday 28 April.

Though some are on my TBR, I’ve read only two of them.  But then, I tend not to, with nominees for this award, because I read a lot from small publishers, and it’s the big conglomerates that dominate these awards.  But Theresa Smith has read quite a number of them, so visit her site to see her reviews. 

Literary Fiction Book of the Year

• A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing, Jessie Tu (Allen & Unwin, Allen & Unwin)
• A Room Made of Leaves, Kate Grenville (Text Publishing, Text Publishing)
• All Our Shimmering Skies, Trent Dalton (HarperCollins Publishers, Fourth Estate), see the SRB review
• Honeybee, Craig Silvey (Allen & Unwin, Allen & Unwin)
• Infinite Splendours, Sofie Laguna (Allen & Unwin, Allen & Unwin)
• Song of the Crocodile, Nardi Simpson (Hachette Australia Pty Ltd, Hachette Australia), on my TBR, see my review
• Sorrow and Bliss, Meg Mason (HarperCollins Publishers, Fourth Estate)
• The Last Migration, Charlotte McConaghy (Penguin Random House, Hamish Hamilton)

General Non-fiction Book of the Year

• Fire Country, Victor Steffensen (Hardie Grant Publishing, Hardie Grant Travel)
• My Tidda, My Sister, Marlee Silva; Illustrated by Rachael Sarra (Hardie Grant Publishing, Hardie Grant Travel)
• One Day I’ll Remember This: Diaries 1987–1995, Helen Garner (Text Publishing, Text Publishing)
• Phosphorescence: On awe, wonder and things that sustain you when the world goes dark, Julia Baird (HarperCollins Publishers, Fourth Estate)
• The Golden Maze: A biography of Prague, Richard Fidler (HarperCollins Publishers, ABC Books)
• The Space Between, Michelle Andrews and Zara McDonald (Penguin Random House, Viking)
• Un-cook Yourself: A Ratbag’s Rules for Life, Nat’s What I Reckon (Penguin Random House, Ebury Australia)
• Women and Leadership, Julia Gillard and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (Penguin Random House, Vintage Australia)

The Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year

• A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing, Jessie Tu (Allen & Unwin)
• Lucky’s, Andrew Pippos (Pan Macmillan Australia, Picador Australia), see my review
• My Tidda, My Sister, Marlee Silva; Illustrated by Rachael Sarra (Hardie Grant Publishing, Hardie Grant Travel)
• Song of the Crocodile, Nardi Simpson (Hachette Australia Pty Ltd, Hachette Australia), on my TBR, see my review
• The Coconut Children, Vivian Pham (Penguin Random House, Vintage Australia), abandoned
• The Grandest Bookshop in the World, Amelia Mellor (Affirm Press, Affirm Press)
• The Happiest Man on Earth, Eddie Jaku (Pan Macmillan Australia, Macmillan Australia)
• The Morbids, Ewa Ramsey (Allen & Unwin, Allen & Unwin), on order, see my review

Small Publishers’ Adult Book of the Year

• Glimpses of Utopia: Real ideas for a fairer world, Jess Scully (Pantera Press, Pantera Press)
• Living on Stolen Land, Ambelin Kwaymullina (Magabala Books), on my TBR, see my review
• Stone Sky Gold Mountain, Mirandi Riwoe (University of Queensland Press, UQP), on my TBR
• The Animals in That Country, Laura Jean McKay (Scribe Publications, Scribe Publications)
• The Rain Heron, Robbie Arnott (Text Publishing, Text Publishing), on my TBR, see my review
• What Is To Be Done: political engagement and saving the planet, Barry Jones (Scribe Publications, Scribe Publications)
• Where the Fruit Falls, Karen Wyld (UWA Publishing, UWA Publishing), see my review
• Yornadaiyn Woolagoodja, Yornadaiyn Woolagoodja (Magabala Books), see my review

Biography Book of the Year

• A Bigger Picture, Malcolm Turnbull (Hardie Grant)
• A Repurposed Life, Ronni Kahn with Jessica Chapnik Kahn (Allen & Unwin, Murdoch Books)
• Boy on Fire: The Young Nick Cave, Mark Mordue (HarperCollins Publishers, Fourth Estate)
• Fourteen, Shannon Molloy (Simon & Schuster Australia, Simon & Schuster Australia)
• Paul Kelly, Stuart Coupe (Hachette Australia Pty Ltd, Hachette Australia)
• Soar: A Life Freed by Dance, David McAllister with Amanda Dunn (Thames & Hudson Australia )
• The Happiest Man on Earth, Eddie Jaku (Pan Macmillan Australia)
• Truganini, Cassandra Pybus (Allen & Unwin, Allen & Unwin), on my TBR

General Fiction Book of the Year

• The Bluffs, Kyle Perry (Penguin Random House, Michael Joseph)
• The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams (Affirm Press, Affirm Press), see my review
• The Godmothers, Monica McInerney (Penguin Random House, Michael Joseph)
• The Good Turn, Dervla McTiernan (HarperCollins Publishers, HarperCollins Publishers)
• The Morbids, Ewa Ramsey (Allen & Unwin, Allen & Unwin), on order, see my review
• The Mother Fault, Kate Mildenhall (Simon & Schuster Australia, Simon & Schuster Australia)
• The Survivors, Jane Harper (Pan Macmillan Australia, Macmillan Australia)
• Trust, Chris Hammer (Allen & Unwin, Allen & Unwin