The 2009 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards fiction and non fiction shortlists have been announced.

Non Fiction Shortlist

Van Diemen’s land by James Boyce

Doing life: a biography of Elizabeth Jolley by Brian Dibble

Gough Whitlam by Jenny Hocking

The tall man by Chloe Hooper

House of exile: the life and times of Heinrich Mann and Nelly Kroeger-Mann by Evelyn Juers

Drawing the global colour line by Marilyn Lake & Henry Reynolds

The Henson case by David Marr

American Journeys by Don Watson

Fiction Shortlist

The pages by Murray Bail

People of the book by Geraldine Brooks

Wanting by Richard Flanagan

Everything I knew by Peter Goldsworthy

One foot wrong by Sofie Laguna

The boat by Nam Le

The good parents by Joan London