Literary winners announced at gala awards

Literature in Western Australia had the spotlight firmly focused on it today when Culture and Arts Minister John Day announced the winners of the Australia-Asia Literary Award and Western Australian Premier's Book Awards Premier's Prize.

Mr Day said he was honored to announce the awards, one which celebrated the incredible wealth of talent based in WA, the Premier's Prize; and one which aimed to capitalise on that talent and position the State within its own region, the Australia-Asia Literary Award.

David Malouf won the $110,000 Australia-Asia Literary Award, the richest in the region, for 'The Complete Stories'.

Chair of the Australia-Asia Literary Award judging panel Nury Vittachi said:  "The Complete Stories is a rich feast of subtle tales which sum up the intense joys and sadnesses that fill even the most ordinary lives - we were all moved by this fine collection."

Mr Malouf said he was honoured to have his work singled out and valued in this way.

"This award acknowledges the need for a prize for our region that is commensurate with those on offer in Europe[1]," the Minister said.

"Local authors have been forced to look elsewhere for the international recognition that any award winning novelist should be able to achieve."

The Australia-Asia Literary Award is open to works written by an author resident in Australia or Asia, or which are primarily set in Australia or an Asian country.  Works must have been either written in, or translated into English and published in the preceding year.

Antonio Buti's 'Sir Ronald Wilson:  A Matter of Conscience' won the $20,000 Western Australian Premier's Book Awards Premier's Prize.

To be eligible to enter Western Australian Premier's Book Awards, the work must have been published or produced in 2007 and writers must have either been born in WA, reside in WA, been a resident in WA for a minimum of 10 years, or have WA as the work's primary focus.

Dr Buti, who is a senior lecturer in Law and JLV/Louis Johnson Memorial Trust Fellow at the Law School of The University of Western Australia, spent a number of years in collegial discussion and then formally interviewing Sir Ronald, who died in 2005.

Dr Buti said he was honoured to win the award and felt privileged to have known Sir Ronald Wilson and to have been given the opportunity to be his biographer.
 
"While I found the research and writing of the biography stimulating, it was also most challenging due to the array of Sir Ronald's activities and achievements and the complexities of his personality," Dr Buti said.

Chloe Maugher, chair of the Premier's Book Award judging panel, said Antonio Buti's biography of a remarkable Australian, Sir Ronald Wilson, was considered a worthy winner of the 2007 Premier's Prize.

"The result of Buti's comprehensive research is a readable, accessible, and interesting biography, revealing details of a personal life and of important legal decisions which influenced our social history and which should be of interest to all Australians," Ms Maugher said.

"The State Government recognises that creativity is valuable to a culturally rich society and can be a powerful source of competitive advantage," Mr Day said.

Further information on the awards is available at http://www.dca.wa.gov.au/aala or http://www.slwa.wa.gov.au/pba.html

The shortlisted works for the Australia-Asia Literary Award are:

·         The Lost Dog by Michelle de Kretser

·         Blood Kin by Ceridwen Dovey

·         The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

·         Orpheus Lost by Janette Turner Hospital

·         The Complete Stories by David Malouf

The shortlisted works for the Western Australian Premier's Book Awards Premier's Prize are:

·         Sir Ronald Wilson: A Matter of Conscience by Antonio Buti 

·         The Light River by Hal Colebatch

·         The Black Balloon by Elissa Down and Jimmy the Exploder

·         Cottesloe: A Town of Distinction by Ruth Marchant James

·         Ziba came on a Boat by Liz Lofthouse and Robert Ingpen

·         Other Country by Stephen Scourfield

·         Love is a UFO by Ken Spillman  

Minister's office: 9213 6600

[1]           Currently the world's richest literary prize is the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (EUR 100,000 / AUD 192,000 as at 14/11). The IMPAC Award, founded in 1994, is open to novels written in any language and by authors of any nationality, provided the work has been published in English or English translation.

The Man Booker Prize is the second richest (GBP 50,000 / AUD 112,000 as at 14/11). It was founded in 1969 by Booker McConnell, a multinational conglomerate company. This prestigious award is given to the best full-length novel written in English by a citizen of the UK, the Commonwealth, Eire, Pakistan, or South Africa.