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WA Premier’s Book Awards shortlists announced

The shortlists for this year’s Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards have been announced.

The shortlisted titles in each category are:

Premier’s Prize for an emerging writer ($15,000)

  • If I Tell You (Alicia Tuckerman, Pantera Press)
  • The Rúin (Dervla McTiernan, HarperCollins)
  • The Sky Runs Right Through Us (Reneé Pettitt-Schipp, UWAP)
  • The Wounded Sinner (Gus Henderson, Magabala)
  • You Belong Here (Laurie Steed, Margaret River Press)

Premier’s Prize for writing for children ($15,000)

  • Grandpa, Me and Poetry (Sally Morgan, illus by Craig Smith, Scholastic)
  • The Happiness Box (Mark Greenwood, illus by Andrew McLean, Walker)
  • The Hole Story (Kelly Canby, Fremantle Press)
  • How to Win a Nobel Prize (Barry Marshall and Lorna Hendry, illus by Bernard Caleo, Piccolo Nero)
  • Puddle Hunters (Kirsty Murray, illus by Karen Blair, A&U)

The Daisy Utemorrah Award for unpublished Indigenous junior and YA writing ($15,000)

  • ‘Coincidence’ by Paul Callaghan
  • ‘Mother Speaks’ by Kirli Saunders
  • ‘Tracks of the Missing’ by Carl Merrison Hakea Hustler

Western Australian Writing Fellowship ($60,000)

  • A J Betts
  • Amanda Curtin
  • Craig Silvey
  • Kylie Howarth
  • Madelaine Dickie.

As previously reported by Books+Publishing, in January the WA state government revealed a new format for the WA Premier’s Book Awards. Of the four award categories, three are open only to Western Australian authors while the Daisy Utemorrah Award is open to all Australian writers. In 2018 it was announced that the awards would return to an annual format in 2019 after moving to a biennial format in 2015.

The awards were last presented in 2016.

The winners of this years awards will be announced on 26 July at an event as part of the Disrupted Festival of Ideas at the State Library of Western Australia.

 

Category: Local news