Australian Literary Awards

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Australian Literary Awards

1nandadevi
Modificato: Apr 14, 2022, 1:23 am

This topic is a round up of Australian Literary Awards, with a bit of a focus on those that don't make the headlines.

2nandadevi
Modificato: Apr 14, 2022, 1:24 am

I haven't forgotten the Stella, but I wanted to avoid creating the impression that this was a list of 'biggest' or 'bests' awards. I haven't specifically excluded poetry at any point, in due course it probably deserves it's own topic.

It gets a bit 'messy' when we have multiple awards under one heading (best unpublished, best new writer, best this and best that etc). I'm inclined to treat each 'category' of an award (Stella has several) as a separate award for the purposes of these write-ups. Thoughts?

3nandadevi
Apr 13, 2022, 7:59 pm

I've just added the Ned Kelly Award, and archived the ALA award. The Ned Kelly has a true crime award which appears to be co-equal with their crime fiction award. That probably reflects the huge market for true crime. Personally I think there's something 'not quite right' about the genre, perhaps having worked for ten years in maximum security prisons. It seems to me that there is a very very fine line between exploitation and information. But give credit, some crime writers actually achieves justice for people wrongly accused, or improve the situation for victims of crime. Estelle Blackburn comes to mind - who incidentally talked about the difficult relationship between the families of victims and the writer who opens up wounds they wanted to keep closed.

4bernsad
Apr 13, 2022, 10:18 pm

Just checking if there is a touchstone for Estelle Blackburn, fortunately there is.

5nandadevi
Apr 13, 2022, 11:11 pm

>4 bernsad: Yes, I think her comments about the relationship between the writer and the victim's families is in her The End of Innocence

6pamelad
Apr 13, 2022, 11:32 pm

>1 nandadevi: I don't think these Wikis really belong to the Australian Library Thingers group. I'm happy to be able to link to them, but think that perhaps they're your own personal project. They've rather overtaken the group.

7nandadevi
Modificato: Apr 14, 2022, 1:49 am

>6 pamelad: Hi Pamelad. Well I'll continue doing the Wiki regardless of whether anyone else in the group chooses to engage with it. I had hoped someone might - but I also expected it could be a couple of years before that happens. It's the only website that I'm aware of that actually samples literary websites and literary review websites, or Australian themes and places (except for a highly commercialised exercise in WA).

I can't help but observe that if the topics related to the Wiki appear to be overtaking the group it's only because there is such a low level of activity in the other topics. The wiki posts are not pinned or otherwise given any favourable treatment in the ranking. I will increase my engagement in topics outside these wiki ones in order to try to give those other ones a boost. I will also stop posting updates in Talk about new featured books or authors in the Wiki, given that they will have a fairly high turnover. Again to give other topics a chance to get to the top of the list.

I'm mindful that the Australian LibraryThingers group is FOR Australian LibraryThingers, and as such we are responsible for how it used and how useful it is to us. But I'm also mindful that it is potentially the first port of call for LibraryThingers based overseas who are looking for some insight into Australian literature. In that role it doesn't really function well - the last post (as of today) is back in February, and the one before that is back in October 2021. If nothing else then, the Wiki might be useful to those people who join the Australian LibraryThingers group looking for that sort of information.

8nandadevi
Apr 14, 2022, 1:31 am



The Association for the Study of Australian Literature offers an annual Gold Medal Award for an outstanding literary work published in the preceding year.

*2021 Winner: Nardi Simpson, Song of the Crocodile
*2020 Winner: Charmaine Papertalk Green, Nganajungu Yagu
*2019 Winner: pam brown, click here for what we do

9nandadevi
Apr 14, 2022, 1:35 am



The Ned Kelly Award' from the Australian Crime Writers Association goes to the best Australian Crime Fiction and True Crime writing published each year.

*2021 Winner Crime Fiction: Garry Disher, Consolation
*2021 Winner True Crime: Bret Christian, Stalking Claremont
*See also: The Ned Kelly Awards entry in Wikipedia is a ready reference for the winners and shortlists going back to 2010

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