As usual there are some amazing books on the shortlist for the 2018 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. I’m looking forward to exploring the list. With a total prize money of $295,000 the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards celebrate and honour the achievements of Australian writers and provide “an opportunity to highlight the importance of literacy and to encourage everyone to enjoy and learn from the work of our writers.”
Winners will be announced on 30th April at the State Library of NSW.
Voting opens today for the People’s Choice Award. The winner will be chosen by the public from the shortlist for the 2018 Christina Stead Prize for Fiction. The winner will be announced at the awards presentation on 30 April 2018. Click HERE to vote.
Christina Stead Prize for Fiction $40,000
- Common People by Tony Birch
- Seabirds Crying in the Harbour Dark by Catherine Cole
- Pulse Point: Stories by Jennifer Down
- The Book of Dirt by Bram Presser
- The Restorer Michael Sala
- Taboo by Kim Scott
Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction $40,000
- Victoria: The Woman Who Made the Modern World by Julia Baird
- “A Passion for exploring new countries” Matthew Flinders & George Bass by Josephine Bastian
- The Enigmatic Mr Deakin by Judith Brett
- Passchendaele: Requiem for Doomed Youth by Paul Ham
- The Green Bell: a memoir of love, madness and poetry by Paula Keogh
- The Boy Behind the Curtain by Tim Winton
Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry $30,000
- Archipelago by Adam Aitken
- Euclid’s dog: 100 algorithmic poems by Jordie Albiston
- Bone Ink by Rico Craig
- Argosy by Bella Li
- Captive and Temporal by Nguyen Tien Hoang
- These Wild Houses by Omar Sakr
Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature $30,000
- In The Dark Spaces by Cally Black
- The Blue Cat by Ursula Dubosarsky
- The Ones That Disappeared by Zana Fraillon
- A Shadow’s Breath by Nicole Hayes
- The Build-Up Season by Megan Jacobson
- Ballad for a Mad Girl by Vikki Wakefield
Patricia Wrightson Prize For Children’s Literature $30,000
- The Patchwork Bike by Maxine Beneba Clarke and illustrated by Van T Rudd
- The Elephant by Peter Carnavas
- Blossom by Tamsin Janu
- Figgy Takes the City by Tamsin Janu
- How to Bee by Bren MacDibble
- The Sorry Tale of Fox and Bear by Margrete Lamond and illustrated by Heather Vallance
Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting $30,000
- The Sound of Waiting by Anne Butler
- Rice by Michele Lee
- Black is the New White by Nakkiah Lui
- Mark Colvin’s Kidney by Tommy Murphy
- Little Emperors by Lachlan Philpott
- The Real and Imagined History of the Elephant Man by Tom Wright
Betty Roland Prize for Scriptwriting $30,000
- Deep Water: The Real Story written by Amanda Blue and Jacob Hickey
- Top of the Lake: China Girl, Series 2 Episode 4 ‘Birthday’ by Jane Campion & Gerard Lee
- Sweet Country by Steven McGregor and David Tranter
- Seven Types of Ambiguity, Episode 2 ‘Alex’ by Jacquelin Perske
- Please Like Me, Series 4 Episode 5 ‘Burrito Bowl’ by Josh Thomas, Thomas Ward and Liz Doran
Multicultural NSW Award $20,000
- No More Boats by Felicity Castagna
- The Permanent Resident by Roanna Gonslaves
- Dark Convicts by Judy Johnson
- The Family Law, Series 2 Episode 4 by Benjamin Law and Kirsty Fisher
- Down the Hume by Peter Polites
- Quicksilver by Nicholas Rothwell
Indigenous Writers’ Prize $30,000 biennially
- Finding Eliza: Power and Colonial Storytelling by Larissa Behrendt
- Common People by Tony Birch
- Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms by Anita Heiss
- The Drover’s Wife by Leah Purcell
- Taboo by Kim Scott
There is no shortlist for the UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing ($5,000) – it will be awarded on the night for a published book of fiction written by an author who has not previously published a book-length work of narrative fiction or narrative non-fiction.