The shortlist for the 2008 Queensland Premier's Literary Awards was announced last Thursday 13 August.

The titles in the running for the book-based prizes include:

History Book (Faculty of Arts, University of Queensland Award)

• Van Diemen's Land (James Boyce, Black Inc.)
• Big White Lie: Chinese Australians in White Australia (John Fitzgerald, UNSW Press)
• Vietnam: The Australian War (Paul Ham, HarperCollins)
• An Exacting Heart (Jacqueline Kent, Viking)
• Drawing the Global Colour Line (Marilyn Lake & Henry Reynolds, MUP)

Nonfiction Book Award

• Arthur Boyd: A Life (Darleen Bungey, A&U)
• An Exacting Heart (Jacqueline Kent, Viking)
• Muck (Craig Sherborne, Black Inc.)
• American Journeys (Don Watson, Knopf)

Fiction Book Award

• His Illegal Self (Peter Carey, Random House)
• Diary of a Bad Year (J M Coetzee, Text Publishing)
• The Trout Opera (Matthew Condon, Vintage)
• The Spare Room (Helen Garner, Text Publishing)
• Breath (Tim Winton, Hamish Hamilton)

Poetry Collection (Arts Queensland Judith Wright Calanthe Award)

• Event (Judith Bishop, Salt Publishing/Inbooks)
• Bark (Anthony Lawrence, UQP)
• Typewriter Music (David Malouf, UQP)
• The Australian Popular Songbook (Alan Wearne, Giramondo Publishing)

Australian Short Story (Arts Queensland Steele Rudd Award)

• Someone Else (John Hughes, Giramondo Publishing)
• Camera Obscura (Kathryn Lomer, UQP)
• Redfin (Anthony Lynch, Arcadia)
• The End of the World (Paddy O'Reilly, UQP)

Emerging Queensland Author (Manuscript Award)

• None of the Other Flies Follow My Crooked Lines (Simon Groth)
• Side Close Side: Stories of Love (Krissy Kneen)
• Learning how to Breathe (Linda Neil)
• Omega Park (Amy Vought Barker)

Unpublished Indigenous Writer (The David Unaipon Award)

• 10 Hail Mary's (Kate Howarth)
• White Elephant (Jeanine Leane)
• Every Secret Thing (Marie Munkara)

Children's Book (Mary Ryan's Award)

• Jessica's Box (Peter Carnavas, New Frontier Publishing)
• The Peasant Prince (Li Cunxin, illus by Anne Spudvilas, Viking)
• Collecting Colour (Kylie Dunstan, Lothian)
• Crow and The Waterhole (Ambelin Kwaymullina, Fremantle Press)
• The Worry Tree (Marianne Musgrove, Random House)

Young Adult Book Award

• Requiem for a Beast (Matt Ottley, Lothian)
• Marty's Shadow (John Heffernan, Omnibus Books)
• The Push (Julia Lawrinson, Penguin Books)
• Town (James Roy, UQP)
• At Seventeen (Celeste Walters, UQP)

Science Writer Award

• 'Applying the Paradox of Prevention: Eradicate HIV' (Bill Bowtell, Griffith Review)
• Hail Caesar (Caroline de Costa, Boolarong Press)
• Cool Scientist (Stephen Luntz, Control Publications)
• The Rise of Animals: Evolution and Diversification of the Kingdom Animalia (Patricia Vickers-Rich, Mikhal A Fedonkin, James G Gehling, Kathleen Grey and Guy M Narbonne, Johns Hopkins University Press)
• Why is Uranus Upside Down? And Other Questions about the Universe (Fred Watson, A&U)

Literary or Media Work Advancing Public Debate (The Harry Williams Award)

• People Like Us (Waleed Aly, Picador)
• John Winston Howard (Wayne Errington & Peter van Onselen, MUP)
• 'No Jail for Rape of Girl, 10' (Tony Koch, The Australian)
• Quarterly Essay Issue 27: Reaction Time (Ian Lowe, Black Inc.)
• ‘In My Shoes' (Quentin McDermott and Steve Taylor, Four Corners, The ABC).

The winners will be announced on Tuesday 16 September. To view the full list, including drama and screen writing categories, click here.

http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2008/08/09190/

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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