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NSW Premier’s Literary Awards 2018 winners announced

Tuesday, 1 May 2018   Books+Publishing
@booksandpublishing

The winners of the 2018 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards were presented at a ceremony at the State Library of NSW on 30 April.

Kim Scott’s Taboo (Picador), which tells the story of a group of Noongar people who revisit (for the first time in many decades) the site of a massacre, was awarded the $30,000 Indigenous Writers’ Prize and the $10,000 Book of the Year prize.

Bram Presser’s The Book of Dirt (Text) also received multiple awards, including the $40,000 Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, the $5000 Glenda Adams Award for New Writing and the People’s Choice Award. Part fiction, part family history, The Book of Dirt tells the story of Presser’s grandparents, Jakub Rand and Dasa Roubickova, who lived in Prague during Nazi occupation.

The full list of winners is:

Book of the Year ($10,000)

  • Taboo (Kim Scott, Picador)

Christina Stead Prize for Fiction ($40,000)

  • The Book of Dirt (Bram Presser, Text)

Douglas Stewart Prize for Nonfiction ($40,000)

  • Passchendaele: Requiem for Doomed Youth (Paul Ham, William Heinemann)

Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry ($30,000)

  • Argosy (Bella Li, Vagabond Press)

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

  • How to Bee (Bren MacDibble, A&U)

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

  • The Ones that Disappeared (Zana Fraillon, Hachette)

Indigenous Writers’ Prize ($30,000, offered biennially)

  • Taboo (Kim Scott, Picador)

Multicultural NSW Award ($20,000)

  • The Permanent Resident (Roanna Gonsalves, UWA Publishing)

Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting ($30,000)

  • Black is the New White (Nakkiah Lui, Sydney Theatre Company)

Betty Roland Prize for Scriptwriting ($30,000, joint winners)

  • Deep Water: The Real Story (Aman da Blue & Jacob Hickey, Blackfella Films)
  • Top of the Lake: China Girl, Series 2 Episode 4 ‘Birthday’ (Jane Campion & Gerard Lee, See-Saw Films)

UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing ($5000)

  • The Book of Dirt (Bram Presser, Text)

People’s Choice Award

  • The Book of Dirt (Bram Presser, Text)

Awards judge Suzanne Leal said, ‘With clarity, with urgency and often, too, with humour, the winning entries challenge our understanding of Australia’s history and question where we are headed. We congratulate the writers—both new and established—for these exciting, original and thought-provoking works.’

The winners were chosen from shortlists announced in March. A total of $295,000 in prize money was awarded across 12 categories. For more information, see the State Library of NSW website.

 

Category: Awards Local news