The Time We Have Taken by Steven Carroll

Anatomy of Wings by Karen Foxlee

Steven Carroll has won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book in the South East Asia and South Pacific region for The Time We Have Taken (Fourth Estate); and The Anatomy of Wings by Karen Foxlee (UQP) was awarded Best First Book for the region.

These two regional winners will now go through to the final phase of the competition, where an international judging panel will meet to decide the overall winners for Best Book and Best First Book. As part of the award, Carroll and Foxlee have been invited to take part in The Franschhoek Literary Festival in South Africa, a trip paid for by the Commonwealth Foundation..

The Time We Have Taken is Carroll's sixth novel, set in a Melbourne suburb during the 1970s. Carroll's last two novels, The Art of the Engine Driver (2001) and The Gift of Speed (2004) were both shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award.

The Melbourne-based writer said in a statement: 'It's a thrill and a privilege just to be shortlisted, given the calibre of the writers on the list, let alone counted amongst the regional winners of this international award.'

Linda Funnell, fiction publisher at Fourth Estate, said 'This is just wonderful. The Commonwealth Writers' Prize is a major international award and this is tremendous recognition for Steve. With each of his past books we have seen his reputation grow, and it is particularly exciting to see this novel, which has been praised for its evocation of Australian life, reach so successfully beyond our borders.'

Each prize is worth £1000 (A$2100). For details on the other region winners, see the CWP website

The overall winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize will be announced on 18 May in South Africa.

This article from Thorpe Bowker's Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

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