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Premier’s awards celebrate Queensland literary talent

Queensland’s rich talent pool of writers was recognised tonight and the shortlist for two 2016 Queensland Literary Awards announced at the opening of the Brisbane Writers Festival. 

Opening the 54th annual Brisbane Writers Festival, Queensland Premier and Arts Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the shortlist in two literary awards in her name.

“The Brisbane Writers Festival continues to grow each year and the Queensland Literary Awards allow us to recognise outstanding writers, celebrate our stories and help to foster the next generation of writing talent,” the Premier said.

“Two literary awards close to my heart, the Queensland Premier’s Award for a Published Work of State Significance and Queensland Premier's Young Publishers and Writers Awardswereestablished last year to recognise important Queensland voices.

“The shortlisted nominees in these two awards demonstrate the diversity of story-tellers and high standard of young writing talent emerging in Queensland,” she said.

Queensland Premier’s Award for a Published Work of State Significance ($25,000)

  • Remotely Fashionable: A Story of Subtropical Style, Nadia Buick & Madeleine King

  • All Fall Down, Matthew Condon

  • Wasted: A Story of Alcohol, Grief and a Death in Brisbane, Elspeth Muir

  • The Long Goodbye, P.J. Parker

  • Not Just Black and White, Lesley and Tammy Williams

Queensland Premier's Young Publishers and Writers Awards (two recipients $10,000 each with an additional $2500 worth of professional development)

  • Emily Craven

  • Sam George-Allen

  • Anna Jacobson

  • Michelle Law

  • Andrew McMillen

Last year, the inaugural Queensland Premier’s Award for a Published Work of State Significance to the value of $25 000 went to Queensland academic Libby Connors for her book Warrior, a story of a young Aboriginal leader set in Brisbane in the 1800s.

The two Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Awards are for Queensland writers under the age of 30 working in traditional or contemporary forms.

“The 2015 winners are on track for a productive year with Megan McGrath, from North Stradbroke Island, completing her first novel and Toowoomba-based Rebecca Jessen working on a memoir collection about growing up in Western Sydney,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

The Premier said Queensland Government funding matched sponsorship dollars for ten award categories and also funded three Writers Fellowships to develop manuscripts and writing projects.

“Past fellowship winners Patrick Holland launched his fellowship novel One at Avid Reader in May, while Angela Slatter continues her international success in the USA and UK with her short fiction collection. The 2015 Fellows Karen Foxlee, Inga Simson and Krissy Kneen are each working on manuscripts,” she said.

The 2016 Queensland Literary Awards, administered by the State Library of Queensland, offer prizes for writers in 12 categories across fiction, non-fiction and poetry for published and unpublished work, including the popular The Courier-Mail People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award.

The Queensland Literary Awards are presented with the support of partners The University of Queensland, Griffith University, the University of Southern Queensland, Claire Booth, the Copyright Agency Limited Cultural Fund and The Courier-Mail. 

Award winners will be announced 5 October 2016.

Further information: http://www.qldliteraryawards.org.au/