SPN Book of the Year Award shortlist announced
The shortlist for the Small Press Network (SPN) book of the year award has been announced.
The shortlisted books are:
- Forgotten Corners: Essays in search of an island’s soul (Pete Hay, Walleah Press)
- The Subjects (Sarah Hopkins, Text)
- Cooee Mittigar: A story on Durag songlines (Jasmine Seymour and Leanne Mulgo Watson, Magabala)
- blur by the (Cham Zhi Yi, Subbed In)
- When One Person Dies the Whole World is Over (Mandy Ord, Brow Books)
- Lucky Ticket (Joey Bui, Text)
- Nganajungu Yagu (Charmaine Papertalk Green, Cordite Books).
This year’s judging panel, made up of editor and broadcaster Melissa Cranenburgh, author Jane Rawson and Readings digital marketing manager Jackie Tang, said there was ‘an extraordinary range of titles’ submitted, with five times as many entries as for last year’s Most Underrated Book Award.
‘Our shortlist could not take in every book we admired,’ the judges said. ‘But we’re proud of the list we settled on: poetic and political essays from a much-loved Tasmanian writer; a graphic novel that transforms the quotidian into the profound; short stories that turn a keen eye on life in Vietnam and the Vietnamese diaspora; poetry about food, love and identity; a gorgeously illustrated children’s guide to the landscapes and lives of Darug country; a complex, compelling novel about a mysterious reform school; and a cycle of poems following a woman’s relationship with her mother and language.’
As previously reported by Books+Publishing, SPN renamed its annual Most Underrated Book Award (MUBA) as the Small Press Network Book of the Year Award earlier this year.
The winner will be announced at a virtual ceremony on 10 December, with the winning book’s author and publisher to each receive $1000.
Category: Local news
