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SLQ to run Queensland Literary Awards; 2014 awards open for entries

The State Library of Queensland (SLQ) has announced that it will ‘take leadership’ of the Queensland Literary Awards (QLA), and is calling for entries for the 2014 awards.

State librarian Janette Wright said in a statement that the library ‘will continue the collaborative model established through the hard work and dedication of the QLA Committee, volunteers, partners and supporting community members over the past two years’.

‘We are excited to have the continued support of key QLA partners including the University of Queensland, Griffith University, the University of Southern Queensland, the Copyright Agency Limited Cultural Fund and the Courier-Mail,’ said Wright.

Wright said the awards would complement the library’s existing awards program, which includes the Young Writers Award, the black&write! Indigenous Writing Fellowships and Indigenous Editing Mentorships.

As previously reported by Books+Publishing, the volunteer-led QLAs were established in 2012 to replaced the axed Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards.

In previous years organisers have held crowdfunding campaigns to raise money for the awards and to ‘sustain the awards for the future’.

Entries for the 2014 awards are now open in the following categories: fiction, nonfiction, young-adult book, children’s book, history book, short story collection (Steele Rudd Award), poetry collection (Judith Wright Calanthe Award), unpublished Indigenous writer (David Unaipon Award), emerging Queensland writer and Courier-Mail People’s Choice Queensland Book for the Year.

Nominations are also open for a new $10,000 Queensland Premier’s Young Writers Fellowship, as well as three $15,000 Queensland Writers Fellowships, which were first launched in 2013. The Premier’s Young Writers Fellowship aims to assist young Queensland writers under 30, while the Queensland Writers Fellowships ‘provide opportunities for talented Queensland writers who are looking for support to finish their manuscripts’.

Nominations for the awards and fellowships close on 19 September. Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in December and will receive a cash prize.

For more information on the awards and fellowships, visit the QLA website here.

 

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Category: Local news