2020 Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards shortlists announced

Jun 17, 2021, 10:40 AM

Culture and the Arts Minister David Templeman has announced the shortlists for the 2020 Western Australian Premier's Book Awards.

  • Shortlists for the Premier's Book Awards announced.
  • Winners to be announced at a ceremony to be held at the State Library in August 2021.

The Premier's Book Awards support, develop and recognise excellence in writing. The $60,000 Western Australian Writer's Fellowship is one of the most valuable awards in Australian arts and open to writers of any style, medium or genre.

The Daisy Utemorrah Award for Unpublished Indigenous Junior and Young Adult Fiction is open to indigenous writers from across Australia. This award is administered by Broome-based indigenous publisher Magabala Books with support from the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries.

The winners of the 2020 Premier's Book Awards will be announced in August 2021 at the State Library of Western Australia.

The shortlist for each prize category are:

The Premier's Prize for an Emerging Writer ($15,000)

  • Father of the Lost Boys by Yuot A. Alaak (Fremantle Press)
  • Fathoms: The World in the Whale by Rebecca Giggs (Scribe Publications)
  • A Question of Colour by Pattie Lees and Adam C. Lees (Magabala Books)
  • We Can't Say We Didn't Know by Sophie McNeill (ABC Books: An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers)
  • The Salt Madonna by Catherine Noske (Pan Macmillan Australia)

The Premier's Prize for Writing for Children ($15,000)

  • How to Make a Bird - Written by Meg McKinlay and illustrated by Matt Ottley (Walker Books Australia)
  • Littlelight by Kelly Canby (Fremantle Press)
  • Shirley Purdie: My Story, Ngaginybe Jarragbe by Shirley Purdie (Magabala Books)
  • Across The Risen Sea by Bren MacDibble (Allen & Unwin)
  • Willy-willy Wagtail: Tales from the Bush Mob by Helen Milroy (Magabala Books)

The Daisy Utemorrah Award for Unpublished Indigenous Junior and YA Fiction ($15,000 and a publishing contract with Magabala Books)

  • Home is Calling — Natasha Leslie
  • Dirran — Carl Merrison and Hakea Hustler

The Western Australian Writer's Fellowship ($60,000)

  • Amanda Bridgeman
  • Donna Mazza
  • Jon Doust
  • Madelaine Dickie
  • Sisonke Msimang

Shortlist for the 2020 Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards