Zable honoured for Lifetime Achievement in Literature

Arnold Zable has won the Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature, which ‘acknowledges the achievements of eminent literary writers over the age of 60 who have made an outstanding and lifelong contribution to Australian literature’.

Zable’s books include his 1991 memoir Jewels and Ashes (Scribe), the novels Café Scheherazade, Scraps of Heaven and Sea of Many Returns, and the short story collections The Fig Tree and Violin Lessons (all Text).

Zable received the Voltaire award for the promotion of free speech and human rights advocacy in 2013, is a former member of the Victorian Immigration Museum advisory committee and is a patron of Sanctuary, the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, the Eastweb Foundation and the Victorian Storytellers Guild.

The Australia Council Awards annually recognise outstanding and sustained contributions by Australian artists in music, literature, community arts and cultural development, emerging and experimental arts, visual arts, theatre and dance. Last year’s Lifetime Achievement in Literature award was presented to Helen Garner.

A video of Zable in conversation with Michael Heyward from Text Publishing will be streamed online on 21 April at 4pm AEST.

Category: Awards Local news