2010 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature

By Perry Middlemiss on March 2, 2010 9:03 PM

The winners of the 2010 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature were announced on Sunday. The winners are:

Children's Literature Award (for a published children's book, fiction or non-fiction)
Tales From Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan (Allen & Unwin)

Fiction Award (for a published novel or collection of short stories)
Ransom by David Malouf (Knopf/Random House)

Innovation Award (for a published book which departs from the conventional use of genre by borrowing elements from a number of genres such as fiction, non-fiction, biography, autobiography, poetry or cultural criticism)

Barley Patch by Gerald Murnane (Giramondo)

Non-Fiction Award (for a published work of non-fiction demonstrating a command of the subject as well as a fluent and outstanding literary style)
Stella Miles Franklin: A Biography by Jill Roe (Fourth Estate/HarperCollins)

John Bray Poetry Award (for a published collection of poetry)
The Other Way Out by Bronwyn Lea (Giramondo Poets)

Premier's Award (for the best of the above categories)
Tales From Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan (Allen & Unwin)

South Australian Recipients

Jill Blewett Playwright's Award
This Place by Nina Pearce

Unpublished Manuscript Award
End of the Night Girl by Amy T. Matthews

Barbara Hanrahan Fellowship
Potatoes in All Their Glory and How to Win at Democracy by Patrick Allington

Carclew Fellowship
Alone With Me by Nicole Plüss

The full shortlists can be found here.

Wyatt by Garry Disher
Disher's anti-hero is back after an absence of ten years with a gritty, fast, noirish struggle for survival. All the best aspects of Disher's work are on display here.

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
A Young Adult steampunk novel set at the start of an alternate history First World War. Fast-paced, intriguing and totally captivating.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
Dick's novel of the near future when the difference between human and android is barely discernible. One of the great all-time sf titles.

American Journeys by Don Watson
Watson journeys into the heart of America, by train and car. There he discovers the best, and the worst, of humanity and society.

Ghostlines by Nick Gadd
2009 Best First Novel at the Ned Kelly Awards. Murder in the art world involving political intrigue and business corruption in Melbourne.

In It to Win It: The Australian Cricket Supremacy by Peter Roebuck
Roebuck's examination of the rise of Australian cricket post-1987. Some flashes of wonderful insight interspersed with long documentary reportage.

Things We Didn't See Coming by Steven Amsterdam
2009 Age Book of the Year. A post-apocalyptic vision of a country (Australia?) in decline, as seen through the eyes of one man. Told in a series of semi-connected short stories.

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis
Lewis's intriguing look into what makes a good baseball team. It's essentially about sport but should also be read from a people/project management perspective. Fascinating stuff.

Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob by Lee Siegel
Reads like a polemic against the dangers of the internet, but with little in the way of guidance towards the second part of the title.

Blood Moon by Garry Disher
The fifth of Garry Disher's Challis and Destry series set on the Mornington peninsular. A brutal bashing turns political. But is it related to the murder of a local environment protection officer?

Replay by Ken Grimwood
World Fantasy Award winner from 1988. Grimwood's intriguing novel about a man who relives his life over and over. A modern fantasy classic which most readers would not recognise as such.

The Tango Briefing by Adam Hall
The fifth of Adam Hall's Quiller series from 1973 and probably about his best. More physical than McCarry.

The Tears of Autumn by Charles McCarry
McCarry's masterful spy thriller from 1974. Paul Christopher investigates the asssassination of John F Kennedy.