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Russell Prize for Humour Writing 2017 shortlist announced

The State Library of NSW has announced the shortlist for the 2017 Russell Prize for Humour Writing.

The shortlisted titles are:

  • Going Out Backwards: A Grafton Everest Adventure (Ross Fitzgerald & Ian McFadyen, Hybrid Publishers)
  • True Girt: The Unauthorised History of Australia—Volume 2 (David Hunt, Black Inc.)
  • A Toaster on Mars (Darrell Pitt, Text)
  • Error Australis (Ben Pobjie, Affirm Press)
  • Quicksand (Steve Toltz, Penguin)
  • The Anti-Cool Girl (Rosie Waterland, Fourth Estate).

Chair of the judging panel Patti Miller said of the shortlist: ‘Humorous writing is not exclusive—it welcomes history, memoir, novels, science-fiction, political satire—but with the extra twist of making us laugh, or at least making us lift our eyebrows with an ironic smile … This year’s shortlisted titles for the Russell Prize for Humour Writing are properly absurd, disrespectful and very funny indeed.’

The $10,000 biennial prize is awarded to the best book of humour writing by an Australian author published in the previous two years, and aims to ‘celebrate, recognise and encourage the humour-writing genre’.

The shortlist was chosen from 48 entries. The winner will be announced at the State Library of NSW on 8 June.

The inaugural award was presented to Bernard Cohen’s The Antibiography of Robert F Menzies (HarperCollins) in 2015.

For more information about the award, click here.

 

Category: Local news