Ate the end of last week, the shortlisted works for the 2010 Prime Minister's Literary Awards were announced. In the past the awards have been presented solely in the Fiction and Non-Fiction categories. This year the extra categories of Young Adult and Children's Fiction have been added.
The shortlisted works are:
Fiction
Summertime by J. M. Coetzee
The Book of Emmett by Deborah Forster
The Lakewoman by Alan Gould
Dog Boy by Eva Hornung
Ransom by David Malouf
Lovesong by Alex Miller
As the Earth turns Silver by Alison Wong
Non-Fiction
The Water Dreamers: The Remarkable History of Our Dry Continent by Michael Cathcart
Strange Places: A Memoir of Mental Illness by Will Elliott
The Colony: A History of Early Sydney by Grace Karskens
The Life and Death of Democracy by John Keane
The Blue Plateau: A Landscape Memoir by Mark Tredinnick
The Ghost at the Wedding by Shirley Walker
Young Adult Fiction
Stolen by Lucy Christopher
The Winds of Heaven by Judith Clarke
Confessions of a Liar, Thief and Failed Sex God by Bill Condon
The Museum of Mary Child by Cassandra Golds
Swerve by Phillip Gwynne
Jarvis 24 by David Metzenthen
Beatle meets Destiny by Gabrielle Williams
Children's Fiction
Cicada Summer by Kate Constable
The Terrible Plop by Ursula Dubosarsky and illustrator Andrew Joyner
Just Macbeth by Andy Griffiths and illustrator Terry Denton
Mr Chicken goes to Paris by Leigh Hobbs
Running with the Horses by Alison Lester
Star Jumps by Lorraine Marwood
Mannie and the Long Brave Day by Martine Murray and illustrator Sally Rippin
Tensy Farlow and the Home for Mislaid Children by Jen Storer
Harry and Hopper by Margaret Wild and illustrator Freya Blackwood
The winners in each category will be announced sometime, but, as in previous years, the relevant department seems a little coy about publicising the date of that announcement.
Minister for Environment Protection, Heritage and the Arts Peter Garrett released the shortlists at Readings Bookshop in Carlton, and you can see some pictures of that event here.
"The Australian's" literary weblog, "A Pair of Ragged Claws", had a few comments about the lists, as did James Bradley on his "A City of Tongues" weblog.
