The winners of the inaugural Prime Minister's Literary Awards have been announced at Parliament House in Canberra.

The Zookeeper's War, by Steven Conte (Fourth Estate), has won the $100,000 fiction award.

Ochre and Rust: Artefacts and Encounters on Australian Frontiers, by Philip Jones (Wakefield Press), has won the $100,000 nonfiction award.        

While the nonfiction prize was clearly concerned with Australia, the choice of Conte's novel, which is set in Berlin during the second world war, clearly demonstrates the difference between the Prime Minister's awards and the Miles Franklin award, which accepts only titles that address ‘aspects of Australian life'.  

What the judges said about The Zookeeper's War:

‘The Zookeeper's War is a striking first novel, imbued with the melancholy of a collapsing world-Nazi Germany in the last years of the Second World War. Vera, married to the keeper of the Berlin Zoo, struggles each day to survive Allied air raids and betrayal by neighbours. As characters negotiate intricate and destructive moral choices, the narrative drive is sustained to the satisfyingly uncertain ending.'

What the judges said about Ochre and Rust:

‘Jones' conception of using artefacts such as a cake of red ochre, Aboriginal shields and Daisy Bates' travelling suit to discuss aspects of the Australian frontier is an original one. His work has depth and breadth of analysis; and his prose has simplicity and elegance. The insights drawn are through a true historian's eye and the work illuminates larger debates about encounters between the first Australians and the European settlers.'

Ochre and Rust has also been shortlisted for the 2007 Queensland Premier's Awards, the 2008 New South Wales Premier's Awards, the 2008 Chief Minister NT's History Book Awards and was joint Winner of the FAW Melbourne University Publishing Award 2008.

WBN understands HarperCollins is currently out of stock of The Zookeeper's War and has not yet advised a reprint date.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he looked forward ‘to these new awards continuing to celebrate great Australian writing in the years to come'.

‘The two winning works have all the qualities these awards celebrate, they are beautifully written and exciting books by two exceptionally talented Australian writers,' said Minister for the Arts Peter Garrett.

To view the other titles shortlisted for the awards, click here.

For more information on the awards visit www.arts.gov.au/pmliteraryawards.

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2008/09/09483/

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

Tags: philip jones, prime ministers literary awards, steven conte