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New award, rebranding for Tasmanian Literary Prizes

The biennial Tasmanian Literary Prizes have been rebranded as the Premier’s Literary Prizes and expanded to include an award for young Tasmanian writers.

The Young Writer’s Prize, worth $5000, is open to Tasmanian writers aged 35 or under, and is sponsored by philanthropic donations. The prize is awarded to a writer rather than a particular work, and covers ‘nonfiction or fiction for adults or children, graphic novels, poetry or play scripts’.   

The Premier’s Literary Awards also include the existing Tasmanian Book Prize for the best book with Tasmanian content, worth $25,000 and sponsored by the Tasmanian Government; the Margaret Scott Prize for the best book by a Tasmania writer and the University of Tasmania Prize for the best new unpublished literary work by an emerging Tasmanian writer, both worth $5000 and sponsored by the University of Tasmania.

The changes to the prizes were announced at a reception for Tasmania author Richard Flanagan.

Entries for the 2015 Premier’s Literary Prizes open in mid-April. The shortlists are expected to be announced at the Tasmanian Writers Festival in September and the winners at a Premier’s Literary Prizes event in late 2015.

As previously reported by Books+Publishing, James Boyce’s 1835: The Founding of Melbourne and the Conquest of Australia (Black Inc.) won the Tasmania Book Prize at the 2013 Tasmanian Literary Prizes, which were presented as part of the Ten Days on the Island festival.

The Tasmanian Literary Prizes were previously known as the Tasmania Book Prizes.

For more information about the Premier’s Literary Prizes, visit the website here.

 

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Category: Local news