Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards Entries - Quickly

 Looking through his backlog from the last week or two, Tragic came across the  press release below from 21st April. 

With entries due by  10th May Tragic is not too sure if Anna meant that we were supposed to 'put pen to paper' to write a novel between 21st April and May 10 or submit an entry for work completed.

Possibly the whole process is influenced by the speed that buildings etc go up in Queensland and natives of that fair state work at double quick speed in all matters.

As to the phrase of putting 'pen to paper' it does sound more attractive than 'putting digits to keyboard' I suppose. 

Get busy you slackers!

Press Release 21st April---

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh today invited writers across the country to put pen to paper and enter the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards for a chance to win a slice of $225,000 in prize money and gain national recognition.

“The awards offer Australian writers the opportunity to gain national recognition and exposure for their work, while also providing important financial assistance to support their development.”

“Whether you are an aspiring or established writer in history, science, poetry, fiction, non-fiction or short stories, I strongly encourage Australian writers from all literary endeavours to apply.”

Nominations are sought across the following 14 categories:

* Fiction Book Award $25,000
* Emerging Queensland Author – Manuscript Award $20,000
* Unpublished Indigenous Writer – The David Unaipon Award $15,000
* Non-Fiction Book Award $15,000
* History Book – Faculty of Arts, University of Queensland Award $15,000
* Children’s Book – Mary Ryan’s Award $15,000
* Young Adult Book Award $15,000
* Science Writer Award $15,000
* Poetry Collection – Arts Queensland Judith Wright Calanthe Award $15,000
* Australian Short Story Collection – Arts Queensland Steele Rudd Award $15,000
* Literary or Media Work Advancing Public Debate – The Harry Williams Award $15,000
* Film Script – Screen Queensland Award $15,000
* Drama Script (Stage) Award $15,000
* TV Script – QUT Creative Industries Award $15,000

Visit www.literaryawards.qld.gov.au or phone (07) 3405 5215 for more information.

Entries close Friday 10 May 2010. 

Christian Book Award Winners Evangelical Christian Publishers Association

The US-based Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) has announced the winners for the 2010 Christian Book Awards. 

The Christian Book Awards honours titles in six categories—Bibles, Bible Reference & Study, Christian Life, Fiction, Children & Youth, and Inspiration & Gift. This year, there were 226 entries.

The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns, received the top honor by being named the 2010 Christian Book of the Year.

The 2010 Christian Book Award winners are:

Bibles“Glo. The Bible for a Digital World.” Immersion Digital, Zondervan.

Bible Reference & Study
“The New Moody Atlas of the Bible,” Barry J. Beitzel, Moody Publishers.

Christian Life
“The Hole in Our Gospel Richard Stearns, Thomas Nelson.

Fiction
“Watch Over Me,” Christa Parrish, Bethany House/ Baker Publishing Group.

Children & Youth
B4UD8-Before You Date: 7 Things You Need to Know before Your Next … Hayley and Michael DiMarco, Revell/ Baker Publishing Group.

Inspiration & Gift
Grace Notes: Daily Readings with a Fellow Pilgrim Philip Yancey, Zondervan.

Tragic has pages for the awards at Literary Awards Australia and Literary Awards UK

Call for Entries to US National Book Awards

 A particularly American award, with the books seldom striking a chord over seas,  the guidelines for the  2010 US National Book Awards are now available.

20 writers, few of whom have a profile beyond US (except maybe Seth Lerer) who will judge the awards have also been announced. Despite this the fact that the literature in contention is judged by working writers ensures that a high standard is maintained. 

Strangely, Tragic was recently reading and enjoying the works of one of the poetry panel judges, Brenda Shaughnessy,  Human Dark with Sugar (Copper Canyon Press, 2008) . Ms. Shaughnessy is no stranger to literary awards having won o the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets.

They judges are:

 

Fiction panel: Andrei Codrescu, Samuel R. Delany, Sabina Murray, Joanna Scott (chair), and Carolyn See. 

Nonfiction panel:  Blake Bailey, Marjorie Garber (chair), Jennifer Michael Hecht, Seth Lerer, and Sallie Tisdale.

Poetry panel:  Rae Armantrout, Cornelius Eady (chair), Linda Gregerson, Jeffrey McDaniel, and Brenda Shaughnessy. 

Young people’s literature panel: Carrick Hill, Kelly Link, Tor Seidler (chair), Hope Anita Smith, and Sara Zarr.

 

The judges will announce 20 finalists on October 13, and the winners will be named at the awards ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City on November 17.

 

To receive entry guidelines, publishers can email Katie McDonough at kmcdonough@nationalbook.org. Entry forms must be postmarked by June 15

Canadian Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards Shorts

An annual prize  valued at CDN$6,000  administered by Ontario Arts Foundation and the Ontario Arts Council in Canada.

The 2010 shortlist for the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards have been announced.

In a nice touch Huttonville Public School in Brampton, Ontario is in the box seat with the winners to be selected by a jury of 5 students in grades 7 and 8 for young adult category, and 5 grade 3 and 4 students choosing the winning author and illustrator for the children’s picture book award.

Tragic is of the firm belief that young people are by far the most qualified to judge their own literature prizes and is in favour of sacking all adult judges for Children and Young Adult awards with adults only playing a role in providing a comprehensive initial selection.

On another note, an author that deserves an wider international audience in Tragic's view, is the  marvelous writer and illustrator Mélanie Watt who has featured in many of the major Canadian Children's awards over the last few years.

Ms Watt has another of her Scaredy Squirrel Series, Scaredy Squirrel at Night, in the running for the Schwartz.

The winner will be announced at an event on May 26th.

Children’s Picture Book Award Category

Perfect Snow Written and illustrated by Barbara Reid (Toronto, ON)
Published by North Winds Press/Scholastic

When Stella was Very, Very Small Written and illustrated by Marie-Louise Gay (Outremont, QC)
Published by Groundwood Books

Proud as a Peacock, Brave as a Lion Written by Jane Barclay (Pointe-Claire, QC) Illustrated by Renné Benoit (St.Thomas, ON)

Published by Tundra Books

Scaredy Squirrel at Night
Written and illustrated by Mélanie Watt (Laval, QC)
Published by Kids Can Press

The Imaginary Garden
Written by Andrew Larsen (Toronto, ON)
Illustrated by Irene Luxbacher (Toronto, ON)
Published by Kids Can Press

Young Adult/Middle Reader

Vanishing Girl: The Boy Sherlock Holmes, His Third Case
by Shane Peacock (Tundra Books)

The Present Tense of Prinny Murphy by Jill MacLean (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)

Earthgirl by Jennifer Cowan (Groundwood Books)

The Mealworm Diaries by Anna Kerz (Orca Books)

The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong (Doubleday Canada)

Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa Winners

The third edition of the biennial Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa took place on Friday, April 30 at The Civic Centre in Lagos. The prize is named after Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka who was in attendance.

Organised by The Lumina Foundation, the award was established in 2006 to "encourage people to read, to think and to write," according to chairperson, Francesca Emanuel.

Open to known and unknown writers from across the continent the award carries a prize of $20,000. This year there were 330 entries from 11 participating countries.

The jury could not come up with a clear decision with South African writer Kopano Matlwa , for Coconut,   and Wale Okediran for Tenants of The House being declared joint winners.

Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani's I Do Not Come To You By Chance  was the other shortlisted work culled from a longlist of ten.

Previous winners include female Nigerian writers Sefi Atta (Everything Good Will Come) and Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu (Zahrah the Windsee, ker)

Kibble and Dobbie Not Such A Mysterey After All

Many thanks to Claire Crethar from the Trustees of the Kibble and Dobbie, Perpetual, for letting Tragic know that the mysterious shortlists for the awards perhaps weren't quite as mysterious as he thought - possibly just having a bad day in cyberspace a week or so back.......

Here they are: 

The Kibble Literary Award The Kibble Literary Award recognises the work of an established Australian female writer.  Shortlist Kristina Olsson for The China Garden -  Shirley Walker for The Ghost at the Wedding Josephine Emery for The Real Possibility of Joy The Dobbie Literary Award The Dobbie Award recognises the work of an Australian female writer published for the first time. Shortlist Karen Hitchcock for Little White Slips Deborah Forster for The Book of Emmett Robyn Mundy for The Nature of Ice Highly commended Jennifer Mills for The Diamond Anchor Judith Lanigan for The A True History of the Hoola Hoop