The shortlists of the Queensland Literary Awards have been announced.
Following on from a successful crowd-funding campaign, the Queensland Literary Awards are up and running and the shortlists are out. The eventual winners will be announced on September 4.
Congratulations not only to all the shortlisted authors and publishers - but also to everyone who has made the awards possible this year following the misguided cancellation of the premier’s version of the prize.
Here are the shortlists.
Fiction book award
- The Chemistry of Tears by Peter Carey
- All That I Am by Anna Funder
- Sarah Thornhill by Kate Grenville
- Autumn Laing by Alex Miller
- Cold Light by Frank Moorhouse
Science writer award
- Seduced by Logic by Robyn Arianrhod
- Gone Viral by Frank Bowden
- Sex, Genes & Rock ‘n’ Roll by Rob Brooks
- Australia: The Time Traveller’s Guide by Richard Smith
Non-fiction book award
- The People Smuggler by Robin De Crespigny
- Double Entry by Jane Gleeson-White
- Riding the Trains in Japan by Patrick Holland
- Worse Things Happen at Sea by William McInnes & Sarah Watt
- Her Father’s Daughter by Alice Pung
Emerging Queensland author – manuscript award
- Scratches on the Surface by Aaron Smibert
- Home Mechanics by Luke Thomas
- Island of the Unexpected by Catherine Titasey
- Hidden Objects by Ariella Van Luyn
David Unaipon Award for an unpublished Indigenous writer
- Story by Siv Parker
- Hard by Ellen van Neerven-Currie
- My Journey that May Never End by Dorothy Williams-Kemp
The Harry Williams Award for a literary or media work advancing public debate
- Too Much Luck: The Mining Boom and Australia’s Future by Paul Cleary
- The Australian Moment: How We Were Made for These Times by George Megalogenis
- There Goes the Neighbourhood by Michael Weley
Judith Wright Calanthe Award – poetry collection
- The Welfare of My Enemy by Anthony Lawrence
- Outside by David McCooey
- Late Night Shopping by Rhyll McMaster
- Crimson Crop by Peter Rose
- The Yellow Gum’s Conversion by Simon West
History book award
- Seduced by Logic by Robyn Arianrhod
- 1835: The Founding of Melbourne and the Conquest of Australia by James Boyce
- The Biggest Estate on Earth by Bill Gammage
- The Censor’s Library by Nicole Moore
Children’s book award
- The Horses Didn’t Come Home by Pamela Rushby
- Brotherband 1: The Outcasts by John Flanagan
- Look a Book! by Libby Gleeson & Freya Blackwood
- Ten Blue Wrens by Elizabeth Honey
- Kumiko and the Shadow Catchers by Briony Stewart
Young adult book award
- Night Beach by Kirsty Eagar
- The Ink Bridge by Neil Grant
- Three Summers by Judith Clarke
- Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan
- All I Ever Wanted by Vikki Wakefield
The Steele Rudd Award for an Australian short story collection
- Silence by Rodney Hall
- Shooting the Fox by Marion Halligan
- In the Shade of the Shady Tree by John Kinsella, Swallow Press
- The Weight of a Human Heart by Ryan O’Neill
- Forecast: Turbulence by Janette Turner Hospital
Television script award
- The Straits: ‘Yawor – My Lovely’, episode 3 by Blake Ayshford
- The Slap: ‘Harry’, episode 3 by Brendan Cowell,
- Strange Calls: ‘Phantom’, episode 3 by Anthony Mullins
- Mabo by Sue Smith
- Dance Academy: ‘The Prix de Fonteyn’, episode 24 by Liz Doran
Drama script (stage) award
- War Crimes by Angela Betzien
- Bloodland by Wayne Blair
- Taxi by Patricia Cornelius
- Baby Teeth by Rita Kalnejais
- A Golem Story by Lally Katz
Film script award
- Dead Europe by Louise Fox
- Being Venice by Miro Bilbra
- Rarer Monsters by Shane Armstrong & S P Krauss
- Save Your Legs by Brendan Cowell
And, this year the Queensland Literary Awards announced a new category where you can vote for your favourite Queensland Book of the Year…
The Courier-Mail People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year
- The Ottoman Motel by Christopher Currie
- Closer to Stone by Simon Cleary
- The Fix by Nick Earls
- The Promise of Iceland by Kári Gíslason
- Riding the Trains in Japan by Patrick Holland
- Worse Things Happen at Sea by William McInnes & Sarah Watt
For more information on the awards please see
