WA Premier’s Book Awards shortlists announced

The shortlists for this year’s Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards have been announced.

The shortlisted titles in each category are:

Premier’s Prize for an Emerging Writer ($15,000)

• Father of the Lost Boys (Yuot A Alaak, Fremantle Press)
• Fathoms: The World in the Whale (Rebecca Giggs, Scribe)
• A Question of Colour (Pattie Lees & Adam C. Lees, Magabala)
• We Can’t Say We Didn’t Know (Sophie McNeill, ABC Books)
• The Salt Madonna (Catherine Noske, Picador)

Premier’s Prize for Writing for Children ($15,000)

• How to Make a Bird (Meg McKinlay, illus by Matt Ottley, Walker Books)
• Littlelight (Kelly Canby, Fremantle Press)
• Shirley Purdie: My Story, Ngaginybe Jarragbe (Shirley Purdie, Magabala)
• Across The Risen Sea (Bren MacDibble, A&U)
• Willy-willy Wagtail: Tales from the Bush Mob (Helen Milroy, Magabala)

Daisy Utemorrah Award for Unpublished Indigenous Junior and YA Writing ($15,000 and a publishing contract with Magabala Books)

• Home is Calling (Natasha Leslie)
• Dirran (Carl Merrison & Hakea Hustler)

The Western Australian Writer’s Fellowship ($60,000)

• Amanda Bridgeman
• Donna Mazza
• Jon Doust
• Madelaine Dickie
• Sisonke Msimang.

Of the four award categories, three are open only to Western Australian authors, while the Daisy Utemorrah Award is open to Indigenous writers from all states and territories. The awards returned to an annual format in 2019 after moving to a biennial format in 2015.

For more information on the shortlist, see the awards website.

Category: Awards Local news