Amsterdam, Sullivan and Tiffany shortlisted for Encore Award

8 July 2013 Books+Publishing

In the UK, books by Australian authors Steven Amsterdam, Jane Sullivan and Carrie Tiffany have been shortlisted for this year’s Encore Award for second novels.

Amsterdam’s What the Family Needed (Sleepers), Sullivan’s Little People (Scribe) and Tiffany’s Mateship with Birds (Picador) are among six titles shortlisted for the £10,000 (A$16,443) award, which is presented for ‘outstanding second novels’ published in the previous year. Also on the shortlist are: The Teleportation Accident by Ned Beauman (Sceptre), The Illicit Happiness of Other People by Manu Joseph (John Murray) and Joy by Jonathan Lee (Windmill Books).

The award organisers said in a statement that the winner will be announced ‘shortly’. They said the six shortlisted titles were ‘drawn from a wide and hugely entertaining field’, and according to the judges, represent ‘the most ambitiously conceived and impressively executed second novels of the year’. ‘We were thrilled to encounter superheroes hiding in unassuming suburbs, poets in the Australian countryside and comic-book artists in Madras; to read of troupes of miniature circus performers, lovelorn stage-set designers and conscience-ridden lawyers,’ said the judges.

The Encore Award was first presented in 1990. The award is presented annually, however between 2005 and 2011 it was presented biennially. Previous Australian winners include Julia Leigh, who won the award in 2009 for Disquiet, and Michelle de Kretser, who won the award in 2004 for The Hamilton Case (Vintage). In 2012, UK author Joe Dunthorne won the award for Wild Abandon (Penguin).

For more information about the award, click here.

Category: Local news