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Queensland Literary Awards 2018 shortlists announced

The shortlists for the 2018 Queensland Literary Awards (QLAs) have been announced.

The shortlisted titles in each category are:

Queensland Premier’s Award for a Work of State Significance ($25,000)

  • The Saltwater Story (Benjamin Allmon & David Kelly, Cairn Tor)
  • Please Explain: The Rise, Fall and Rise Again of Pauline Hanson (Anna Broinkowski, Viking)
  • White Woman Black Heart: Journey Home to Old Mapoon (Barbara Miller, CreateSpace)
  • We’ll Show the World: Expo 88 (Jackie Ryan, UQP)
  • Brisbane Houses with Gardens (Beth Wilson, Beth Wilson)

Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Awards (two awards of $12,500)

  • Anna Jacobson
  • Ella Jeffery
  • Bri Lee
  • Emily O’Grady
  • Yen-Rong Wong

Fiction ($15,000)

  • Flames (Robbie Arnott, Text)
  • The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree (Shokoofeh Azar, Wild Dingo)
  • The Fish Girl (Mirandi Riwoe, Brio)
  • Taboo (Kim Scott, Picador)
  • The Shepherd’s Hut (Tim Winton, Hamish Hamilton)

Nonfiction ($15,000)

  • The Enigmatic Mr Deakin (Judith Brett, Text)
  • The Year that Everything Changed: 2001 (Philippa McGuinness, Vintage)
  • Call of the Reed Warbler: A New Agriculture, A New Earth (Charles Massey, UQP)
  • Korea: Where the American Century Began (Michael Pembroke, Hardie Grant)
  • Tracker (Alexis Wright, Giramondo)

Children’s ($15,000)

  • The Storm Whale (Sarah Brennan, illus by Jane Tanner, A&U)
  • The Elephant (Peter Carnavas, UQP)
  • Go Go and the Silver Shoes (Jane Godwin, illus by Anna Walker, Viking)
  • The Shop at Hoopers Bend (Emily Rodda, HarperCollins)
  • Swan Lake (Anne Spudvilas, A&U)

Young Adult ($15,000)

  • In the Dark Spaces (Cally Black, Hardie Grant Egmont)
  • The Dream Walker (Victoria Carless, Lothian)
  • Sparrow (Scot Gardner, A&U)
  • Amelia Westlake (Erin Gough, Hardie Grant Egmont)
  • Because of You (Pip Harry, UQP)

History ($10,000)

  • The Enigmatic Mr Deakin (Judith Brett, Text)
  • Deep Time Dreaming: Uncovering Ancient Australia (Billy Griffiths, Black Inc.)
  • Beautiful Balts: From Displaced Persons to New Australians (Jayne Persian, NewSouth)
  • We’ll Show the World: Expo 88 (Jackie Ryan, UQP)
  • The Battle Within: POWs in Postwar Australia (Christina Twomey, NewSouth)

Steele Rudd Award for a Short Story Collection ($10,000)

  • Bird Country (Claire Aman, Text)
  • Common Pople (Tony Birch, UQP)
  • Habits of Silence (Stephanie Buckle, Finlay Lloyd)
  • Pulse Points (Jennifer Down, Text)
  • Trick of the Light (Laura Elvery, UQP)

QUT Digital Literature Award ($15,000)

  • Our Cupidity Coda (Mez Breeze)
  • A Place Called Ormalcy (Mez Breeze)
  • Core Values (Benjamin Laird)
  • Little Emperor Syndrome (David Thomas Henry Wright, with Chris Arnold)

Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection ($10,000)

  • Click Here for What We Do (Pam Brown, Vagabond)
  • Chatelaine (Bonny Cassidy, Giramondo)
  • I Love Poetry (Michael Farrell, Giramondo)
  • The Honeymoon Stage (Oscar Schwartz, Giramondo)
  • Lost Lake (Bella Li, Vagabond Press)

David Unaipon Award for an Unpublished Indigenous Writer ($15,000)

  • ‘The Making of Ruby Champion’ (Kirstie Parker)
  • ‘Why Worry Now’ (Melanie Saward)
  • ‘Jibba’s Song’ (Wendy Somerville)
  • ‘Song—the story of a girl, a bird and a teapot’ (Waiata Telfer)
  • ‘Destinations Past Present Future: Diving through timelines’ (Teila Watson)

Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer ($15,000)

  • ‘fate, revenge and chipburgers’ (Karen Herschell)
  • ‘On Either Side’ (Laura Kenny)
  • ‘Garrison Town’ (Melanie Myers)
  • ‘Hidebound’ (Christopher Przewloka)

People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year ($10,000)

  • Burning Down (Venero Armanno, UQP)
  • Danger Music (Eddie Ayres, A&U)
  • To Become a Whale (Ben Hobson, A&U)
  • The Yellow House (Emily O’Grady, A&U)
  • The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart (Holly Ringland, Fourth Estate)
  • We’ll Show the World: Expo 88 (Jackie Ryan, UQP)
  • A Life Underwater (Charlie Veron, Viking)
  • Brisbane Houses with Gardens (Beth Wilson, Beth Wilson)

Several categories have increased from $10,000 to $15,000 prize money since last year, with a total prize pool of $240,000.

The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony at the State Library of Queensland on 23 October.

Voting for the Courier Mail People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year is open until 1 October.

The QLAs are managed by the State Library of Queensland, which took over from the volunteer QLA Committee in 2014. For more information about the awards, visit the website here.

 

Category: Awards Local news