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NSW Premier’s Literary Awards 2023 shortlists announced

2 March 2023   Books+Publishing
@booksandpublishing

The shortlists for the 2023 New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards have been announced.

Changes to the awards this year include the $30,000 Indigenous Writers’ Prize now being offered annually; the prize money for the Multicultural NSW Award being increased from $20,000 to $30,000; and the people’s choice award now including $5000 prize money.

The shortlisted titles in each category are:

Christina Stead Prize for Fiction ($40,000)

  • Cold Enough for Snow (Jessica Au, Giramondo)
  • Every Version of You (Grace Chan, Affirm)
  • Women I Know (Katerina Gibson, Scribner)
  • Iris (Fiona Kelly McGregor, Pan Macmillan)
  • Bad Art Mother (Edwina Preston, Wakefield)
  • Grimmish (Michael Winkler, Puncher & Wattmann)

Douglas Stewart Prize for Nonfiction ($40,000)

  • We Come With This Place (Debra Dank, Echo)
  • Mothertongues (Ceridwen Dovey & Eliza Bell, PRH)
  • How to End a Story: Diaries 1995-1998 (Helen Garner, Text)
  • Bedtime Story (Chloe Hooper, Scribner)
  • Crimes Against Nature: Capitalism and global heating (Jeff Sparrow, Scribe)
  • Another Day in the Colony (Chelsea Watego, UQP)

Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry ($30,000)

  • Revenants (Adam Aitken, Giramondo)
  • The Singer and Other Poems (Kim Cheng Boey, Cordite Books)
  • Stasis Shuffle (Pam Brown, Hunter Publishers)
  • Mirabilia (Lisa Gorton, Giramondo)
  • The Jaguar (Sarah Holland-Batt, UQP)
  • And to Ecstasy (Marjon Mossammaparast, Upswell)

Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children’s Literature ($30,000)

  • Wanderer (Victor Kelleher, Christmas Press)
  • Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief (Katrina Nannestad, HarperCollins)
  • Amma’s Sari (Sandhya Parappukkaran & Michelle Pereira, HGCP)
  • Rita’s Revenge (Lian Tanner, A&U)
  • The First Scientists: Deadly Inventions and Innovations from Australia’s First Peoples (Corey Tutt & Blak Douglas, Hardie Grant Explore)
  • Zadie Ma and the Dog Who Chased the Moon (Gabrielle Wang, PRH)

Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature ($30,000)

  • Completely Normal (and Other Lies) (Biffy James, HGCP)
  • A Little Spark (Barry Jonsberg, A&U)
  • Sugar (Carly Nugent, Text)
  • The Upwelling (Lystra Rose, Hachette)
  • The Brink (Holden Sheppard, Text)
  • Where You Left Us (Rhiannon Wilde, UQP)

Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting ($30,000)

  • Chalkface (Angela Betzien, State Theatre Company South Australia & Sydney Theatre Company)
  • Son of Byblos (James Elazzi, 25A @ Belvoir St Theatre/ Playlab Theatre)
  • The End of Winter (Noëlle Janaczewska, Siren Theatre Company)
  • Cathedral (Caleb Lewis, State Theatre Company South Australia/ Country Arts South Australia/ Currency Press)
  • Golden Blood (Merlynn Tong, Griffin Theatre Company/ Currency Press)
  • Whitefella Yella Tree (Dylan Van Den Berg, Griffin Theatre Company/Currency Press)

Betty Roland Prize for Scriptwriting ($30,000)

  • Mystery Road: Origin, Episode One, ‘The Whipping Tree’ (Blake Ayshford, Bunya Productions)
  • Blaze (Del Kathryn Barton & Huna Amweero, Causeway Films)
  • Heartbreak High, Season 1 Episode 8, ‘Three of Swords’ (Hannah Carroll Chapman, Fremantle Media Australia/ Netflix ANZ)
  • The Australian Wars (Jacob Hickey, Rachel Perkins & Don Watson, Blackfella Films)
  • Heartbreak High, Season 1 Episode 5, ‘Bin Chicken’ (Thomas Wilson-White, Fremantle Media Australia/ Netflix ANZ)
  • The Stranger (Thomas M Wright, See-Saw Films)

Multicultural NSW Award ($30,000)

  • 11 Words for Love (Randa Abdel-Fattah & Maxine Beneba Clarke, Hachette)
  • The Eulogy (Jackie Bailey, Hardie Grant Books)
  • Scary Monsters (Michelle de Kretser, A&U)
  • The Whitewash (Siang Lu, UQP)
  • The Bonesetter’s Fee and other stories (Rashida Murphy, Spineless Wonders)
  • When Granny Came to Stay (Alice Pung & Sally Soweol Han, Pan Macmillan)

Indigenous Writers’ Prize ($30,000 )

  • We Come With This Place (Debra Dank, Echo)
  • Harvest Lingo (Lionel Fogarty, Giramondo)
  • Open Your Heart to Country (Jasmine Seymour, Magabala)
  • The Dunggiirr Brothers and the Caring Song of the Whale (Aunty Shaa Smith, Neeyan Smith, Uncle Bud Marshall, with Yandaarra including Sarah Wright, Lara Daley and Paul Hodge, A&U)
  • The First Scientists: Deadly inventions and innovations from Australia’s First Peoples (Corey Tutt & Blak Douglas, Hardie Grant Explore)
  • Another Day in the Colony (Chelsea Watego, UQP)

NSW Premier’s Translation Prize ($30,000 — biennial award)

  • Deadly Quiet City: Stories From Wuhan, COVID Ground Zero  (Murong Xuecun, translator Anonymous, Hardie Grant Books)
  • Duino Elegies (Rainer Maria Rilke, trans by Alison Croggon, Newport Street Books)
  • The Membranes (Chi Ta-wei, trans by Ari Larissa Heinrich, Columbia University Press)
  • The Assommoir (Émile Zola, trans by Brian Nelson, OUP)
  • On the Line (Joseph Ponthus, trans by Stephanie Smee, Black Inc.)
  • People from Bloomington (Budi Darma, trans by Tiffany Tsao, Penguin Classics)

UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing ($5000)

  • Blaze (Del Kathryn Barton & Huna Amweero, Causway Films)
  • The Eulogy (Jackie Bailey, Hardie Grant Books)
  • We Come With This Place (Debra Dank, Echo)
  • Women I Know (Katerina Gibson, Scribner)
  • The Rat-Catcher’s Apprentice (Maggie Jankuloska, MidnightSun)
  • The Upwelling (Lystra Rose, Hachette Australia)
  • Hush (Ciella Williams, New Ghosts Theatre Company/Playlab Theatre)
  • At the Altar of Touch (Gavin Yuan Gao, UQP).

Voting for the people’s choice award is now also open.

The shortlisted works were chosen by 35 judges from a record 856 entries. The winners will be announced on 22 May.

 

Category: Awards Local news