Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

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Keith Murdoch bio wins top award

Tom D C Roberts’ biography of Rupert Murdoch’s father, Australian journalist Keith Murdoch, has won the Australian National Biography Award. The judges described Before Rupert: Keith Murdoch and the Birth of a Dynasty (University of Queensland Press) as ‘a masterful biography, full of remarkable insights into a celebrated figure in Australian business and political history’. ‘The coverage of Murdoch’s race fanaticism, his genius for tabloid sensation, his innovations in newspaper enterprise and his interventions in national politics are stand-out features.’

A number of debut Australian women crime writers have been recognised in the shortlists for the Davitt Awards, which focus exclusively on crime books by Australian women.

Jane Harper’s The Dry (Pan Macmillan), Cath Ferla’s Ghost Girls (Echo) and Holly Throsby’s Goodwood (Allen & Unwin) are all nominated for best adult crime novel and best debut crime novel. Also up for best adult crime novel are popular YA author Melina Marchetta’s Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil (Penguin) and Tania Chandler’s Dead in the Water, a follow-up to the author’s 2015 debut Please Don’t Leave Me Here (Scribe). The winners will be announced in late August.

Several Australian authors have also been shortlisted for international awards. Jane Harper has been shortlisted for the UK Crime Writers’ Association’s Gold Dagger Award for The Dry, while Emily Bitto is in the running for the UK Historical Writers Association’s debut historical fiction award for her Stella Prize-winning novel The Strays (Affirm).

 

Category: Think Australian awards