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South Australian Literary Awards 2024 winners announced

Wednesday, 16 October 2024   Books+Publishing
@booksandpublishing

The winners of the 2024 South Australian Literary Awards have been announced.

The debut memoir of Adelaide author Shannon Burns, Childhood (Text), has won the Premier’s Award for the best overall published work and also won the nonfiction award.

‘The book’s unflinching portrayal of trauma and social mobility offers deep insight into class and culture in South Australia’, said judges of the book, which recounts Burns’s upbringing in Adelaide’s northern suburbs. The judges added: ‘The book is startlingly intelligent, written with sophisticated prose, and deeply evokes its place and time. Childhood stood out as the overall winner against a highly competitive group of winners of their forms and genres as a masterful literary accomplishment that utterly succeeded in concept and execution.’

The winning works in each category are:

Premier’s award ($25,000)

  • Childhood (Shannon Burns, Text)

Fiction award ($15,000)

Nonfiction award ($15,000)

  • Childhood (Shannon Burns, Text)

Young adult fiction award ($15,000)

  • Completely Normal (and Other Lies) (Biffy James, HGCP)

Children’s literature award ($15,000)

  • Scar Town (Tristan Bancks, Puffin)

John Bray poetry award ($15,000)

  • At the Altar of Touch (Gavin Yuan Gao, UQP)

Jill Blewett playwright’s award ($12,500)

  • Paradise Lost (Melissa-Kelly Franklin)

Unpublished manuscript award ($10,000)

  • ‘Salt Upon the Water’ (Lyn Dimckens)

Tangkanungku Pintyanthi fellowship ($15,000)

  • ‘Monologues, Poems and Ramblings for You, Them, Us… and Me…’ (Alexis West)

Barbara Hanrahan fellowship ($15,000)

  • ‘Radiance: A State of Being’ (Molly Murn)

Max Fatchen fellowship ($15,000)

  • ‘The Children of Elphinstone’ (James A Cooper).

State Library of South Australia director Geoff Strempel offered his congratulations to all winners and shortlisted finalists. ‘As the custodian of stories, the State Library of South Australia is delighted to manage and host the awards and proud to celebrate the diverse writing culture and talents of all our shortlisted finalists and winners. I congratulate the authors and writers awarded with this prestigious literary honour.’

Formerly known as the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, and previously presented as part of Adelaide Writers’ Week, the South Australian Literary Awards are presented biennially by the South Australian government.

The winners were chosen from a shortlist announced in August, which had been selected from 827 entries.

More information is available on the State Library of South Australia website.

 

Category: Local news