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1 February 2012 - 2011 Dromkeen Medal announced - Children's author Libby Gleeson will be the recipient of the 2011 Dromkeen Medal. Gleeson has won a number of awards for her books and has been made a Member of the Order of Australia. She has also received the Lady Cutler Award for Services to Children's Literature, and was recognised with a special award at the 2011 NSW Premier's Literary Awards. The Dromkeen Medal is made annually 'to an Australian citizen for a significant contribution to the appreciation and development of children's literature in Australia'.
The winner of the 2010 Dromkeen Medal (presented in 2011) was Shaun Tan.
25 January 2012 - Shortlist for the Indie Awards 2012 announced - The shortlist for the Indie Awards 2012 has now been released. The category award winners, as well as the Indie Book Of The Year 2012, will be announced at a Gala Dinner on March 10th, 2012 at the Sebel Albert Park, Melbourne.For details click on the link at the head of this story.
19 December 2011 - First Australian Children's Laureates announced - The establishment of an Australian Children’s Laureate to promote the importance of reading is based on the successful implementation of this idea in the UK and US. The Children’s Laureate will be an Australian author and/or illustrator of children’s and/or youth literature who is making a significant contribution to the children’s literature canon of this country. The inaugural Children’s Laureate role for 2012 to 2013 is shared by two eminent and much-loved children’s authors, Alison Lester and Boori Monty Pryor.
16 December 2011 - Montreal International Poetry Prize announced - Australian poet Mark Tredinnick has won the inaugural Montreal International Poetry Prize, worth approximately $48,500, for his poem 'Walking Underwater'. Tredinnick's poem was selected from a shortlist of 50 by former UK poet laureate Andrew Motion. Motion described the poem as 'a bold, big-thinking poem, in which ancient themes, especially the theme of our human relationship with landscape, are re-cast and re-kindled', and said Tredinnick's poem 'deserves its eminence as a prize winner'.
27 November 2011 - Walkley Awards announced - The winner of the 2011 Walkley Award for Best Nonfiction Book is King Brown Country: The Betrayal of Papunya by Russell Skelton. Skelton's book beat shortlisted works Abandoned: The Sad Death of Dianne Brimble by Geesche Jacobson, and An Eye for Eternity: The Life of Manning Clark by Mark McKenna.
25 October 2011 - 2011 Inky Awards announced - The Inkys are annual awards for teenage literature, presented by Inside a Dog, a website funded by the State Library of Victoria. The awards are voted for by readers of Inside a Dog.
The Gold Inky, for Australian books, was awarded to James Moloney for Silvermay. The Silver Inky, for international books, was awarded to Cassandra Clare for Clockwork Angel.
30 September 2011 - WA Premier's 2011 Book Awards announced - The winners of this year's WA Premier's Book Awards were announced on 30 September, with That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott winning both th Premier's Prize and the Fiction Prize. For further information see here.
6 September 2011 - Victoria and Queensland Premiers 2011 Literary Awards announced - The winners of this year's Victorian Premier's Literary Awards were announced in Melbourne on 6 September, with That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott winning the inaugural Victorian Prize for Literature. For further information see here.
On the same Day the winners of this year's Queensland Premier's Literary Awards were announced in Brisbane. The two main titles awarded were Reading Madame Bovary by Amanda Lohrey (Fiction Book Award) and An Eye for Eternity: The Life of Manning Clark by Mark McKenna (Nonfiction Book Award). For further information see here.
19 August 2011 - 2011 CBCA Book of the Year winners announced - The winners of this year's Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year Awards have been announced. The winners in each of the categories are: Older Readers - The Midnight Zoo by Sonya Hartnett; Younger Readers - The Red Wind by Isobelle Carmody; Early Childhood - Maudie and Bear by Jan Ormerod & Freya Blackwood; Picture Book of the Year - Mirror by Jeannie Baker and Shakespeare's Hamlet: Staged on the Page by Nikki Greenberg were joint winners; Eve Pownall Award for Information Books - The Return of the Word Spy by Ursula Dubosarsky & Tohby Riddle.
Full details and honour books can be found at the CBCA website above. The awards announcement marked the beginning of Children's Book Week (20 August - 26 August 2011). The theme for this year's Book Week is 'one world, many stories'.
14 August 2011 - National Bookshop Day - Saturday 20 August is National Bookshop Day - come and pay us a visit, we'd love to see you.
3 August 2011 - 2011 John Button Prize shortlist announced - The shortlist for this year's John Button Prize for writing on public policy has been announced. The shortlisted titles are: Quarterly Essay 40: Trivial Pursuit: Leadership and the End of the Reform Era by George Megalogenis, Quarterly Essay 39: Power Shift: Australia's Future Between Washington and Beijing by Hugh White, There Goes the Neighbourhood: Australia and the Rise of Asia by Michael Wesley, and Successful Reform: Past Lessons, Future Challenges by Gary Banks. The winner of this year's award will be announced in late August.
2 August 2011 - 2011 Ned Kelly Awards shortlists announced - The shortlists for this year's Ned Kelly Awards for Australian Crime Writing have been announced. For Best Crime Fiction the shortlist is Prime Cut by Alan Carter, Line of Sight by David Whish-Wilson, and The Old School by P M Newton.
Full details are available at the Awards Website above. The winners of this year's awards will be announced in Melbourne on Wednesday 31 August as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival.
7 July 2011 - 2011 Prime Minister's Literary Awards Announced - The winners of this year's Prime Minister's Literary Awards are: Fiction - Traitor by Stephen Daisley, Non-Fiction - The Hard Light of Day by Rod Moss, Young Adult Fiction - Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley, Children's Fiction - Shake a Leg by Boori Monty Pryor and Jan Ormerod.
22 June 2011 - 2011 Miles Franklin Winner Announced - Kim Scott has won the 2011 Miles Franklin Award for his novel That Deadman Dance. The judges described the novel as "supple and accessible in style, generous in spirit and outlook, a fascinating, powerful portrait of Australia's earliest days."
16 June 2011 - 2011 IMPAC Prize Winner Announced - Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann has won the 2011 International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award. The award is the most valuable for a novel published in English, with the winner chosen from 162 titles, nominated by 166 public libraries from 43 countries.
McCann's novel was chosen from a shortlist of 10 that included Australian authors David Malouf for Ransom, Craig Silvey for Jasper Jones, Australian Evie Wyld for After the Fire, a Still, Small Voice, as well as Brooklyn by Colm Toibín, The Vagrants by Yiyun Li, Love and Summer by William Trevor, Little Bird of Heaven by Joyce Carol Oates, Galore by Michael Crummey, and The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver.
