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ASAL announces book awards finalists

Thursday, 26 May 2022   Books+Publishing
@booksandpublishing

The Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL) has announced the finalists for several literary awards that the organisation oversees.

Magarey Medal

ASAL and the Australian Historical Association have announced the shortlist for the biennial Magarey Medal for Biography. The shortlisted books are:

  • Into the Loneliness: The unholy alliance of Ernestine Hill and Daisy Bates (Eleanor Hogan, NewSouth)
  • The Three Burials of Lotty Kneen: Travels with my grandmother’s ashes (Krissy Kneen, Text)
  • Leaping into Waterfalls: The enigmatic Gillian Mears (Bernadette Brennan, A&U)
  • Fiona Foley Provocateur: An art life (Louise Martin-Chew, QUT Art Museum)
  • Truganini: Journey through the apocalypse (Cassandra Pybus, A&U).

The Magarey Medal is open to women who have published a biography on an Australian subject within the past two years and was last awarded in 2020 to Helen Ennis for Olive Cotton: A life in photography (HarperCollins). The winner of this year’s medal receives $2000.

Mary Gilmore Award

ASAL has also announced the shortlist for the annual Mary Gilmore Award for the best first book of poetry. The shortlisted collections are:

  • Dropbear (Evelyn Araluen, UQP)
  • In the Room with the She Wolf (Jelena Dinić, Wakefield Press)
  • Gravidity and Parity (Eleanor Jackson, Vagabond Press)
  • Bush Mary (Teena McCarthy, Cordite)
  • Animals with Human Voices (Damen O’Brien, Recent Work Press)
  • The Open (Lucy Van, Cordite).

The Mary Gilmore Award is open to debut poetry collections published in the previous calendar year. The winner of last year’s prize was Em König for Breathing Plural (Cordite).

ALS Gold Medal

The longlist for the 2022 ALS Gold Medal has also been announced. The longlisted works of fiction and poetry are:

  • Locust Summer (David Allen-Petale, Fremantle Press)
  • Take Care (Eunice Andrada, Giramondo)
  • Wild Abandon (Emily Bitto, A&U)
  • The Shut Ins (Katherine Brabon, A&U)
  • Human Looking (Andy Jackson, Giramondo)
  • Pushing Back (John Kinsella, Transit Lounge)
  • Killernova (Omar Musa, Penguin)
  • Permafrost (S J Norman, UQP)
  • Homecoming (Elfie Shiosaki, Magabala)
  • Trigger Warning (Maria Takolander, UQP).

Awarded annually for an outstanding literary work in the preceding calendar year, the ALS Gold Medal is Australia’s longest running literary award. The winner receives a gold medal.

The winners of all three awards will be announced in July. For more information, visit the ASAL website.

 

Category: Awards Local news