Finalists announced for the Melbourne Prize for Literature and Awards 2015
The finalists for the Melbourne Prize for Literature 2015 and Awards have been announced.
The Melbourne Prize runs on a three-year awards cycle, alternating between literature, music and urban sculpture. This year, the focus returns once more to books, and includes an exciting new $20,000 prize for an essay.
The $60,000 Melbourne Prize for Literature 2015 is awarded to a Victorian published author whose body of published work has made an outstanding contribution to Australian literature, as well as to cultural and intellectual life. The Prize is supported by Principal Partner, The Vera Moore Foundation, and The Tallis Foundation.
The finalists for this Prize are:
The $30,000 Best Writing Award 2015 is awarded for a published work of outstanding clarity, originality and creativity by a Victorian writer. The work can be any genre, for example fiction, non-fiction, essays, plays, screenplays and poetry. The recipient will also receive Qantas International air travel to the value of $2,500 (including GST). This Award is supported by its sole patron, The Robert Salzer Foundation.
The finalists for this Award are:
- James Button, Speechless A year in my father’s business
- Patricia Cornelius, Savages
- Andrea Goldsmith, The Memory Trap
- Gideon Haigh, On Warne
- Daniel Keene, Mother
- Alex Miller, Coal Creek
- John Safran, Murder in Mississippi
- Maria Takolander, The Double
- Abigail Ulman, Hot Little Hands
- Don Watson, The Bush
The $20,000 Writers Prize 2015 is a new category made available this year to continue the 10th anniversary celebrations of the annual Melbourne Prize. Entrants of the Writers Prize 2015 must be published authors and submit, by the close of entries, an essay of up to 20,000 words (minimum 10,000 words). In addition, five finalists will receive $2,000 each. The Prize is supported by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.
The finalists for this Prize are:
- Robyn Annear, ‘Places Without Poetry’
- Nick Gadd, ‘The unconscious of the city’
- Kate Ryan, ‘Psychotherapy for Normal People’
- David Sornig, ‘Jubilee: a hymn for Elsie Williams on Dudley Flats’
- Maria Tumarkin, ‘No Skin’
In addition, the $6,000 Civic Choice Award 2015 will be presented to one of the finalists, in any category, based on a popular vote, at the finalist exhibition at Federation Square. This Award is supported by Readings and Hardie Grant Books. Voters will have a chance to win an overnight stay at Sofitel Melbourne On Collins, Melbourne’s hotel for the arts.
