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Birch wins 2016 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing

Tony Birch has won the $25,000 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing for his novel Ghost River (UQP).

Birch’s novel, ‘a coming-of-age story’ about two friends ‘who find freedom and adventure along the winding banks of the Yarra River’, was chosen from a shortlist of three that included Ali Cobby Eckermann’s Inside My Mother (Giramondo) and Ellen van Neerven’s Heat and Light (UQP).

The judges said of the winner: ‘Ghost River is a heartfelt story of young friends and drifters who turn to the river in the reality of poverty and violence. This persevering coming-of-age story is also a historical take of Melbourne and the trans-generational flow of the Yarra.’

The Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing is presented biennially as part of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. The winner was announced at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne on 8 September.

 

Category: Local news