The Australian Prime Minister's new literary awards - one fiction, one non-fiction each worth a cool $100,000 - have now opened. Closing date/time for entries is 2pm, Friday March 28th 2008, so you'd better get your skates on. A condition of entry is that five (5) copies of each book be sent along with the completed entry form. Hope they've got a big warehouse. 'Cos, let's face it, they're going to get swamped, and there's probably only 50 books in each category in with a chance. A few other notes are of interest:
- the Fiction Book Award carries a secondary clause: "Entries in this category may be books written for an adult or young adult (12-16 years) audience." Thereby defining books written for an audience younger than 12 as... well, I don't know really. But they're not eligible. Wonder where The Arrival by Shaun Tan sits in relation to this?
- in the Non-Fiction category histories are eligible but not if they've won the Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History. Which I reckon is now looking very vulnerable. Anyway, it was Howard's award so it will probably be out soon.
- self-published works are not eligible. No point commenting on this really.
- left-overs after the awards ceremony will be distributed to public institutions and local libraries, which sounds fair.
- the Australian Government is preparing legislaton to ensure that all prize monies are exempt from income tax. Just these awards you understand. You win any others and you'll be clobbered.
There seems to be no word on whether or not a shortlist for each award will be published, nor when the final announcement of the winners will take place. A timeline would be good.
