ABIA 2021 shortlists announced

The shortlists for the 2021 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) have been announced.

The titles in each category are:

General fiction book of the year

• The Dictionary of Lost Words (Pip Williams, Affirm)
• The Godmothers (Monica McInerney, Michael Joseph)
• The Good Turn (Dervla McTiernan, HarperCollins)
• The Morbids (Ewa Ramsey, A&U)
• The Survivors (Jane Harper, Macmillan)

Literary fiction book of the year

• A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing (Jessie Tu, A&U)
• A Room Made of Leaves (Kate Grenville, Text)
• All Our Shimmering Skies (Trent Dalton, Fourth Estate)
• Honeybee (Craig Silvey, A&U)
• Sorrow and Bliss (Meg Mason, Fourth Estate)

General nonfiction book of the year

• Phosphorescence (Julia Baird, Fourth Estate)
• The Golden Maze (Richard Fidler, ABC Books)
• The Space Between (Michelle Andrews & Zara McDonald, Viking)
• Un-cook Yourself (Nat’s What I Reckon, Ebury)
• Women and Leadership (Julia Gillard & Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Vintage)

Biography book of the year

• A Bigger Picture (Malcolm Turnbull, Hardie Grant)
• Boy on Fire: The young Nick Cave (Mark Mordue, Fourth Estate)
• Paul Kelly (Stuart Coupe, Hachette)
• The Happiest Man on Earth (Eddie Jaku, Macmillan)
• Truganini (Cassandra Pybus, A&U)

Book of the year for older children (ages 13+)

• Aurora Burning: The Aurora Cycle 2 (Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff, A&U)
• Future Girl (Asphyxia, A&U)
• Jane Doe and the Key of All Souls (Jeremy Lachlan, Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing)
• Please Don’t Hug Me (Kay Kerr, Text)
• The Left-Handed Booksellers of London (Garth Nix, A&U)

Book of the year for younger children (ages 7–12)

• Finding Our Heart (Thomas Mayor, illus by Blak Douglas, Hardie Grant Travel)
• Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow (Jessica Townsend, Lothian)
• The Grandest Bookshop in the World (Amelia Mellor, Affirm)
• The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Dangerous Animals (Sami Bayly, Lothian)
• Took The Children Away (Archie Roach, illus by Ruby Hunter, S&S)

Children’s picture book of the year (ages 0–6)

• Bluey: The Creek (Puffin)
• Our Home, Our Heartbeat (Adam Briggs, Kate Moon & Rachael Sarra, Little Hare)
• Sing Me the Summer (Jane Godwin & Alison Lester, Affirm)
• When We Say Black Lives Matter (Maxine Beneba Clarke, Lothian)
• Windows (Jonathan Bentley & Patrick Guest, Little Hare)

Illustrated book of the year

• A Year of Simple Family Food (Julia Busuttil Nishimura, Plum)
• Beatrix Bakes (Natalie Paull, Hardie Grant)
• In Praise of Veg (Alice Zaslavsky, Murdoch Books)
• Loving Country (Bruce Pascoe & Vicky Shukuroglou, Hardie Grant Travel)
• Plantopedia (Lauren Camilleri & Sophia Kaplan, Smith Street Books)

International book of the year

• A Promised Land (Barack Obama, Viking)
• Greenlights (Matthew McConaughey, Headline)
• Ottolenghi Flavour (Yotam Ottolenghi & Ixta Belfrage, Ebury)
• Such a Fun Age (Kiley Reid, Bloomsbury)
• Women Don’t Owe You Pretty (Florence Given, Cassell)

Small publishers’ adult book of the year

• Glimpses of Utopia: Real ideas for a fairer world (Jess Scully, Pantera)
• Living on Stolen Land (Ambelin Kwaymullina, Magabala)
• Stone Sky Gold Mountain (Mirandi Riwoe, UQP)
• The Animals in That Country (Laura Jean McKay, Scribe)
• The Rain Heron (Robbie Arnott, Text)

Small publishers’ children’s book of the year

• Bindi (Kirli Saunders, illus by Dub Leffler, Magabala)
• Family (Aunty Fay Muir & Sue Lawson, illus by Jasmine Seymour, Magabala)
• Found (Bruce Pascoe & Charmaine Ledden-Lewis, Magabala)
• Metal Fish, Falling Snow (Cath Moore, Text)
• My Shadow is Pink (Scott Stuart, Larrikin House)

Audiobook of the year

• Tell Me Why (Archie Roach, narrated by Archie Roach, Sound Kitchen, S&S Australia)
• The Happiest Man on Earth (Eddie Jaku, narrated by Jacek Koman, Macmillan Australia Audio)
• Phosphorescence (Julia Baird, narrated by Julia Baird, Bolinda, HarperAudio)
• Mammoth (Chris Flynn, narrated by Rupert Degas, Wavesound)
• Honeybee (Craig Silvey, narrated by Harvey Zielinsky, Wavesound/A&U)

The Matt Richell award for new writer of the year

• A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing (Jessie Tu, A&U)
• Lucky’s (Andrew Pippos, Picador)
• Song of the Crocodile (Nardi Simpson, Hachette)
• The Coconut Children (Vivian Pham, Vintage)
• The Morbids (Ewa Ramsey, A&U).

The ABIA shortlists were selected by the ABIA Academy, which comprises more than 250 industry representatives. The winners of the Lloyd O’Neill Hall of Fame Award and the Pixie O’Harris Award for consistent contribution to children’s literature will be announced on 19 April. The shortlist for the 2021 Rising Star of the Year Award for an emerging publishing industry talent was announced last Friday.

The winners in each category will be announced at a gala event at Carriageworks in Sydney on 28 April in partnership with the Sydney Writers Festival. For the first time, tickets for the in-person event are available to the public, while the virtual event will be streamed live via YouTube.

The event will again be hosted by Casey Bennetto, with a virtual appearance by actor Cate Blanchett to present the Book of the Year Award. Trent Dalton, Malcolm Turnbull, Nat’s What I Reckon, Matt Okine, Turia Pitt and Ash Grunwald will also appear virtually. Charlotte Wood, Michael Robotham, Courtney Act and federal Minister for the Arts Paul Fletcher will appear in person at the event.

For more information see the ABIA website.

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Category: Awards Local news