Arts Tasmania
We are sending this special edition newsletter to celebrate the wonderful books, talented authors and enthusiastic booksellers that emanate from or call Tasmania home.
This week the longlists for the 2015 Premier’s Literary Prizes ( HERE ) were announced. The prizes provide an opportunity to highlight the wealth of literary talent in Tasmania and celebrate our state as a source of inspiration for writers from around Australia.
The Premier’s Literary Prizes are unique in Australia in that a diverse range of books can be in contention for the prizes which are not genre specific. The longlisted titles in 2015 include a picture book, historical fiction and non-fiction, memoir, poetry, young-adult fiction and literary fiction.
The longlists are:
Tasmania Book Prize – $25 000 prize for the best book with Tasmanian content in any genre, supported by the Tasmanian Government.
The Ambitions of Jane Franklin: Victorian Lady Adventurer by Alison Alexander (Allen & Unwin)
A-Z of Convicts in Van Diemen’s Land by Simon Barnard (Text Publishing)
Infamy by Lenny Bartulin (Allen & Unwin)
The Rise and Fall of Gunns Limited by Quentin Beresford (New South Publishing)
The Black War: Fear, Sex and Resistance in Tasmania by Nicholas Clements (University of Queensland Press)
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan (Random House, Australia)
Into That Forest by Louis Nowra (Allen & Unwin)
Forgotten War by Henry Reynolds (New South Publishing)
A Bone of Fact by David Walsh (Picador Australia)
To Name Those Lost by Rohan Wilson (Allen & Unwin)
Margaret Scott Prize – $5 000 prize for the best book by a Tasmanian writer, supported by the University of Tasmania.
Infamy by Lenny Bartulin (Allen & Unwin)
Born Bad: Original Sin and the Making of the Western World, by James Boyce (Black Inc.)
Tempo by Sarah Day (Puncher & Wattman)
What Days Are For by Robert Dessaix (Random House Australia)
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan (Random House Australia)
Song for a Scarlet Runner by Julie Hunt (Allen & Unwin)
A Short History of Richard Kline by Amanda Lohrey (Black Inc.)
A Bone of Fact by David Walsh (Picador Australia)
To Name Those Lost by Rohan Wilson (Allen & Unwin)
Mothers Grimm by Danielle Wood (Allen & Unwin)
Click here for links to each book and read the judges’ comments about the 2015 Premier’s Literary Prizes longlists:
These books make a fabulous reading list if you are looking to explore some new worlds. The shortlists in all the Premier’s Literary Prizes categories, including the University of Tasmania Prize for an unpublished literary work and the Tasmanian Young Writer’s Fellowship, will be announced at the opening of the Tasmanian Writers and Readers Festival in Hobart on Friday, 11 September 2015.
Extracts of the shortlisted works will be published on the Tasmanian Arts Guide and voting in the People’s Choice Awards will open. You will have the opportunity to dip into the shortlisted books, see what piques your interest and vote for your favourites.
One lucky reader who votes in the People’s Choice Awards will win a copy of all of the longlisted works and an invitation to attend the announcement event at Government House.
The 2015 Premiers Literary Prizes are supported by the Tasmanian Government, the University of Tasmania and private philanthropists.
