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The Aurealis Awards were established in 1995 by Chimaera Publications, the publishers of Aurealis magazine, to recognise the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror writers. The awards originally comprised four categories: science fiction, fantasy, horror, and young adult. A fifth category for children’s fiction was added in 2001. The YA and children’s categories cover works in all three speculative fiction genres. The list of finalists and winners have increased the profile of Australian science fiction, fantasy, and horror, and provide an essential reading list for anyone interested in these genres.
The 2022 Shortlist titles are below, the winners for each category will be announced on Saturday 28 May. Why not borrow and read one or more before the award ceremony and see if you can pick the winner(s)!
The winners of the 2021 Prime Minster’s Literary Awards have been announced at the Sydney Opera House.
The winning books include: a hypnotic fiction story of guilt and denial; a work of rare and assured poetic authority; an account of ancient and modern art worlds that collide; an epic history of the Hawkesbury-Nepean River; an insightful tale of a youth’s journey through loss and despair in search of identity; and two children’s books—an illustrated heartfelt novel and an exceptional picture book that is a meditation on the creative process.
The shortlisted and winning authors have once again shown the creativity and depth of thought our exceptional writers and illustrators are noted for in this country. Congratulations to each and every author, illustrator, poet and historian selected for this year’s shortlists.
The full media release about the Awards from Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts Paul Fletcher can be found here.
The Booker Prize is the leading literary award in the English speaking world, and has brought recognition, reward and readership to outstanding fiction for over five decades. Each year, the prize is awarded to what is, in the opinion of the judges, the best novel of the year written in English and published in the UK and Ireland. This winner for this year is The Promise by Damon Galgut. The book is set in South Africa during the country’s transition out of apartheid, and explores the interconnected relationships between the members of a diminishing white family through the sequential lens of four funerals. Reserve a copy of the winner and the shortlist titles now and see if you agree with the judges.
On Tuesday 12 May 2020 the ‘Miles Franklin Literary Award 2020 longlist was announced. This is something I look forward to each year, as one of my passions is to read books written by Australian Authors.
I didn’t realise it was a passion until I looked back over my ‘Books Read’ list and noticed there was a distinct pattern, 97% were written by Australian Authors. At the time my choices were unconscious; I always picked the books I read by the cover, and I still do to this day, although I now actively look for books written by Australian Authors.
Needless to say each year I eagerly await all the title announcements of the different Australian Literary Awards, of which there are so many. I won’t list them all here, rather I will tell you my top three which are: ‘The Miles Franklin‘, ‘The Stella Prize‘ and the ‘Australian Book Industry Awards‘. I will just quickly mention I love checking out the State Literary Awards too.
Anyway, I can see I am about to lose focus again so returning to ‘The Miles Franklin Award’. Each year I try to read as many of the titles on the longlist as I can, pick my favourites then eagerly await the shortlist announcement, then the winner. Most years my colleague Katherine manages to read all the titles, because she is a reading machine, literally I think she might be a robot, no human can read that many books! Oh, then again my other colleagues Kate, Amanda and Sarah seem to read non stop too, hmm makes you wonder doesn’t it! Oh I did it again didn’t I, went off on a tangent. Right back on topic.
Normally, Katherine & Nisa our resident Podcasting Librarians discuss some of the ‘Miles Franklin’ titles on our Parra Pods podcast. This year, to make things a little different I was thinking to ask more of my book loving colleagues to get involved and see if we can manage to get through the whole longlist and vote for our favourites before the shortlist is announced on 17 June 2020.
Sounds like fun to me. Hopefully I get some takers otherwise I will be very busy reading. Contrary to belief Librarian’s do not spend all day reading! Although maybe I can get special permission just this once, you never know!
I will keep you all updated on my progress via our Twitter account. If you feel like reading along and sharing your thoughts with us that would be great. We have most of the longlist available via our online Library platforms, and quite a few are ‘MULTICAP’. Which means we have multiple copies so we can all read along together.
Happy Reading!
I look forward to seeing how many titles everyone manages to read.
The Crime Writers Association Daggers have been synonymous with quality crime writing for over fifty years. As the most celebrated crime writing, many famous & wonderful works have been produced. This year we can see some names familiar and new.
The Booker Prize is the leading literary award in the English speaking world, and has brought recognition, reward and readership to outstanding fiction for over five decades. Each year, the prize is awarded to what is, in the opinion of the judges, the best novel of the year written in English and published in the UK and Ireland.
