Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards 2021 shortlists announced

8 December 2020 Books+Publishing

The shortlists for the 2021 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards have been announced.

The shortlisted and highly commended works in each category are:

Fiction

The Living Sea of Waking Dreams (Richard Flanagan, Knopf)
Our Shadows (Gail Jones, Text)
The Animals in That Country (Laura Jean McKay, Scribe)
The Coconut Children (Vivian Pham, Vintage)

Highly commended

Revenge: Murder in Three Parts (S L Lim, Transit Lounge)
Smart Ovens for Lonely People (Elizabeth Tan, Brio)

Nonfiction

Songlines: The Power and Promise (Margo Neale and Lynne Kelly, Thames & Hudson)
Body Count: How climate change is killing us (Paddy Manning, S&S)
Show Me Where It Hurts (Kylie Maslen, Text)
Blueberries (Ellena Savage, Text)
Witness: An investigation into the brutal cost of seeking justice (Louise Milligan, Hachette)
Fire Country: How Indigenous fire management could help save Australia (Victor Steffensen, Hardie Grant Travel)

Highly commended

After the Count (Stephanie Convery, Viking)
Hazelwood (Tom Doig, Viking)
People of the River (Grace Karskens, A&U)
British India, White Australia: Overseas Indians, intercolonial relations and the Empire (Kama Maclean, NewSouth)

Drama

Wonnangatta (Angus Cerini, Sydney Theatre Company)
SLAP. BANG. KISS. (Dan Giovannoni, Melbourne Theatre Company)
Sunshine Super Girl: The Evonne Goolagong Story (Andrea James, Currency Press)

Highly commended

Wherever She Wanders (Kendall Feaver, Griffith Theatre Company and Currency Press)
Torch the Place (Benjamin Law, Melbourne University Publishing)

Poetry

Ask Me About the Future (Rebecca Jessen, UQP)
Case Notes (David Stavanger, UWA Publishing)
Throat (Ellen van Neerven, UQP)

Highly commended

Of Memory and Furniture (Bron Bateman, Fremantle Press)
Turbulence (Thuy On, UWAP)

Writing for young adults

The F Team (Rawah Arja, Giramondo)
Metal Fish, Falling Snow (Cath Moore, Text)
Where We Begin (Christie Nieman, Pan)

Highly commended

The End of the World is Bigger than Love (Davina Bell, Text)
The Left-Handed Booksellers of London (Garth Nix, A&U)

Award for Indigenous writing

Tell Me Why: The story of my life and my music (Archie Roach, S&S)
Kindred (Kirli Saunders, Magabala)
Song of the Crocodile (Nardi Simpson, Hachette)
Where the Fruit Falls (Karen Wyld, UWAP)

Highly commended

Late Murrumbidgee Poems (John Mukky Burke, Cordite Books)

Unpublished manuscript

Anam (André Dao)
On A Knife’s Edge (Neela Janakiramanan)
But the Girl (Jessica Zhan Mei Yu)

Highly commended

Children of Tomorrow (J R Burgmann)
Goblins (Patrick Hunn)
The Guest House (Kylie Mirmohamadi).

The winners will be presented with their awards at a digital awards announcement on Monday, 1 February, 2021. The recipients of the fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, young adult categories and the biennial prize for Indigenous writing each receive $25,000, while the winner of the unpublished manuscript award receives $15,000. The winners of each of the seven award categories go on to contest the $100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature. A people’s choice award, worth $2000, will also be announced.

The 2020 Victorian Prize for Literature was awarded to Sydney playwright S Shakthidharan and associate writer Eamon Flack for their play Counting and Cracking (Belvoir and Co-Curious).

For more information about the awards, see the Wheeler Centre website.

Category: Awards Local news