Indie Book Awards 2020 longlists announced

Leading Edge Books has announced the longlists for the 2020 Indie Book Awards for books published in 2019.

The longlisted titles in each category are:

Fiction

• The White Girl (Tony Birch, UQP)
• The Rip (Mark Brandi, Hachette)
• Silver (Chris Hammer, A&U)
• There Was Still Love (Favel Parrett, Hachette)
• Maybe the Horse Will Talk (Elliot Perlman, Vintage)
• Bruny (Heather Rose, A&U)
• Damascus (Christos Tsiolkas, A&U)
• The Wife and the Widow (Christian White, Affirm)
• The Yield (Tara June Winch, Hamish Hamilton)
• The Weekend (Charlotte Wood, A&U)

Nonfiction

• Thirty Thousand Bottles of Wine and a Pig Called Helga (Todd Alexander, S&S)
• Your Own Kind of Girl (Clare Bowditch, A&U)
• Against All Odds (Craig Challen & Richard Harris, Viking)
• Banking Bad (Adele Ferguson, ABC Books)
• 488 Rules for Life: The Thankless Art of Being Correct (Kitty Flanagan, A&U)
• Yellow Notebook: Diaries volume 1 1978–1987 (Helen Garner, Text)
• See What You Made Me Do (Jess Hill, Black Inc.)
• Tell Me Why (Archie Roach, S&S)
• Back on Track (Bernie Shakeshaft with James Knight, Hachette)
• Sand Talk: How Indigenous thinking can save the world (Tyson Yunkaporta, Text)

Debut fiction

• A Constant Hum (Alice Bishop, Text)
• Wearing Paper Dresses (Anne Brinsden, Macmillan)
• Allegra in Three Parts (Suzanne Daniel, Macmillan)
• Hitch (Kathryn Hind, Hamish Hamilton)
• Act of Grace (Anna Krien, Black Inc.)
• Crossings (Alex Landragin, Picador)
• Six Minutes (Petronella McGovern, A&U)
• The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone (Felicity McLean, Fourth Estate)
• Heart of the Grass Tree (Molly Murn, Vintage)
• Taking Tom Murray Home (Tim Slee, HarperCollins)

Young adult

• The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling (Wai Chim, A&U Children’s)
• How It Feels to Float (Helena Fox, Pan Australia)
• Aurora Rising: The Aurora Cycle 1 (Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff, A&U Children’s)
• It Sounded Better in My Head (Nina Kenwood, Text)
• Monuments (Will Kostakis, Lothian)
• Weapon (Lynette Noni, Pantera Press)
• Invisible Boys (Holden Sheppard, Fremantle Press)
• Land of Fences (Mark Smith, Text)
• This Is How We Change the Ending (Vikki Wakefield, Text)
• I Am Change (Suzy Zail, Black Dog Books)

Children’s

• The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Ugly Animals (Sami Bayly, Lothian)
• Into the Wild: Wolf Girl Book 1 (Anh Do, illus by Jeremy Ley, A&U Children’s)
• Tilly (Jane Godwin, illus by Anna Walker, Scholastic)
• The Tiny Star (Mem Fox & Freya Blackwood, Puffin)
• How to Make a Movie in 12 Days (Fiona Hardy, Affirm)
• Mr Chicken All Over Australia (Leigh Hobbs, A&U Children’s)
• The Painted Ponies (Alison Lester, A&U Children’s)
• Young Dark Emu (Bruce Pascoe, Magabala)
• A Trip to the Beach (Gwyn Perkins, Affirm)
• The Glimme (Emily Rodda, illus by Marc McBride, Scholastic)

Illustrated nonfiction

• The Lost Boys (Paul Byrnes, Affirm)
• The Leaf Supply Guide to Creating Your Indoor Jungle (Lauren Camilleri & Sophia Kaplan, Smith Street Books)
• Australia Modern (Philip Goad & Hannah Lewi, Thames & Hudson)
• Finding the Heart of the Nation (Thomas Mayor, Hardie Grant)
• The Whole Fish Cookbook (Josh Niland, Hardie Grant)
• Ben Quilty (Ben Quilty, Lantern Australia)
• Australian Designers at Home (Jenny Rose-Innes, Thames & Hudson)
• Sydney Art Deco (Peter Sheridan, self-published)
• Warndu Mai (Good Food) (Rebecca Sullivan & Damien Coulthard, Hachette)
• In an Australian Light (ed by Jo Turner, Thames & Hudson).

The longlisted titles are nominated by independent booksellers from around the country who are also members of Leading Edge Books.

The shortlist will be announced on 15 January 2019, and the category winners and overall book of the year will be announced at the Leading Edge Books conference in Brisbane on 23 March. Now in its 12th year, the awards ‘recognise and celebrate independent booksellers as the number one supporters of Australian authors’.

Category: Awards Local news