Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature
Encyclopedia
The Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature were established in 1986 and are an initiative of the Government of South Australia, managed through Arts SA. They are granted biennially to the judged-best authors in Australian children’s literature, fiction, innovation, non-fiction and poetry. The awards, which judge the best works published in Australia in the previous two years, are the nation’s most competitive literary awards (761 entries submitted for 2010).
There is a total prize pool of $160,000, and these awards honour the best in Australian literature.
The Premier’s Award recognises the most outstanding published book submitted to the awards.
The awards recognise published and unpublished works by emerging and established writers, across a number of genres.
In 2012 a Young Adult Fiction Award will be included for the first time. There are seven national awards (for published works) and two awards and two fellowships specifically for South Australian writers.
m janssen, Nazid Kimmie and Adrian Marshall
There is a total prize pool of $160,000, and these awards honour the best in Australian literature.
The Premier’s Award recognises the most outstanding published book submitted to the awards.
The awards recognise published and unpublished works by emerging and established writers, across a number of genres.
In 2012 a Young Adult Fiction Award will be included for the first time. There are seven national awards (for published works) and two awards and two fellowships specifically for South Australian writers.
Premier’s Award
- 2010 Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun TanShaun TanShaun Tan is the illustrator and author of award-winning children's books such as The Red Tree, The Lost Thing and The Arrival...
(Allen and Unwin) - 2008 Urban Myths: 210 Poems by John TranterJohn TranterJohn Ernest Tranter is an Australian poet, publisher and editor. He has a long list of achievements in writing, publishing and broadcasting...
(University of Queensland PressUniversity of Queensland PressEstablished in 1948, University of Queensland Press is a dynamic publishing house known for its innovative philosophy and commitment to producing books of high quality and cultural significance...
) - 2006 Sixty Lights by Gail JonesGail JonesGail Jones is an Australian novelist and academic.-Early life and career:Gail Jones was born in Harvey, Western Australia and educated at the University of Western Australia...
(Vintage BooksVintage BooksVintage Books is a publishing imprint founded in 1954 by Alfred A. Knopf. Its publishing list includes world literature, fiction, and non-fiction...
) - 2004 Wild Surmise by Dorothy PorterDorothy PorterDorothy Featherstone Porter was an Australian poet.-Early life:Porter was born in Sydney. Her father was barrister Chester Porter and her mother, Jean, was a high school chemistry teacher. Porter attended the Queenwood School for Girls...
(PicadorPicadorA picador is one of the pair of horsemen in a Spanish bullfight that jab the bull with a lance. They perform in the tercio de varas which is the first of the three stages in a Spanish bullfight.The picador has three main functions:...
) - 2002 True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey (University of Queensland PressUniversity of Queensland PressEstablished in 1948, University of Queensland Press is a dynamic publishing house known for its innovative philosophy and commitment to producing books of high quality and cultural significance...
) - 2000 Mr Darwin’s Shooter by Roger McDonaldRoger McDonaldRoger McDonald is the author of seven novels, two works of non-fiction, and a number of other works....
(Vintage BooksVintage BooksVintage Books is a publishing imprint founded in 1954 by Alfred A. Knopf. Its publishing list includes world literature, fiction, and non-fiction...
) - 1998 The Drowner by Robert DreweRobert DreweRobert Duncan Drewe is an Australian journalist, novelist and short story writer.-Biography:Drewe was born in Melbourne, but moved with his family to Perth, Western Australia at the age of six. He was educated at Hale School, and in his final year was appointed School Captain...
(Pan MacMillan) - 1996 The Future Eaters by Tim FlanneryTim FlanneryTimothy Fridtjof Flannery is an Australian mammalogist, palaeontologist, environmentalist and global warming activist....
(Reed Books)
Non-Fiction Award
- 2010 Stella Miles Franklin by Jill Roe (Fourth Estate / HarperCollinsHarperCollinsHarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
) - 2008 Sunrise West by Jacob G Rosenberg (Brandl & Schlesinger)
- 2006 Velocity by Mandy Sayer (Vintage BooksVintage BooksVintage Books is a publishing imprint founded in 1954 by Alfred A. Knopf. Its publishing list includes world literature, fiction, and non-fiction...
) - 2004 Unearthed: The Aboriginal Tasmanians of Kangaroo Island by Rebe Taylor (Wakefield PressWakefield PressWakefield Press is an independent book publishing company in Australia, based in the Adelaide suburb of Kent Town, South Australia. They publish an eclectic list diverse in subject, tone and point, with strong suits in true stories, gastronomy, history, literature and gift books.-History:Wakefield...
) - 2002 Leviathan: the unauthorised biography of Sydney by John BirminghamJohn BirminghamJohn Birmingham is an Australian author. Birmingham was born in Liverpool, England and migrated to Australia with his parents in 1970.-Early life and career:...
(Random House Australia) - 2000 Throwim Way Leg: An Adventure by Tim FlanneryTim FlanneryTimothy Fridtjof Flannery is an Australian mammalogist, palaeontologist, environmentalist and global warming activist....
(Text Publishing Company) - 1998 Claiming a Continent: A History of Australia by David DayDavid Day (historian)David Day is an Australian historian.David Day graduated with first-class Honours in History and Political Science from the University of Melbourne and was awarded a PhD from the University of Cambridge...
(HarperCollinsHarperCollinsHarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
) - 1996 The Future Eaters by Tim FlanneryTim FlanneryTimothy Fridtjof Flannery is an Australian mammalogist, palaeontologist, environmentalist and global warming activist....
(Reed Books) - 1994 Sort of a Place Like Home: Remembering the Moore River Native Settlement by Susan Maushart(Fremantle Arts Centre Press)
- 1992 Patrick White – A Life by David MarrDavid Marr (journalist)David Ewan Marr is an Australian journalist, author, and progressive political and social commentator. His areas of expertise include the law, Australian politics, censorship, the media and the arts...
(Random House Australia) - 1990 Satura by John BrayJohn BrayJohn Bray may refer to:*John Bray , botanist and physician*John Bray , composer*John Cox Bray , Premier of South Australia*John Jefferson Bray , Chief Justice of South Australia, poet...
(Wakefield PressWakefield PressWakefield Press is an independent book publishing company in Australia, based in the Adelaide suburb of Kent Town, South Australia. They publish an eclectic list diverse in subject, tone and point, with strong suits in true stories, gastronomy, history, literature and gift books.-History:Wakefield...
) - 1988 The Myriad Faces of War by Trevor WilsonTrevor WilsonTrevor Wilson may refer to:*Trevor Wilson , American baseball player*Trevor Wilson , American basketball player*Trevor Wilson , fictional character...
(Polity/Blackwells) - 1986 A History of Prince Alfred College by R M Gibbs (Peacock Publications)
Fiction award
- 2010 Ransom by David MaloufDavid MaloufDavid George Joseph Malouf is an acclaimed Australian writer. He was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2000, his 1993 novel Remembering Babylon won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1996, he won the inaugural Australia-Asia Literary Award in 2008, and he was...
(Knopf/Random House) - 2008 The Ballad of Desmond Kale by Roger McDonaldRoger McDonaldRoger McDonald is the author of seven novels, two works of non-fiction, and a number of other works....
(Vintage BooksVintage BooksVintage Books is a publishing imprint founded in 1954 by Alfred A. Knopf. Its publishing list includes world literature, fiction, and non-fiction...
) - 2006 Sixty Lights by Gail JonesGail JonesGail Jones is an Australian novelist and academic.-Early life and career:Gail Jones was born in Harvey, Western Australia and educated at the University of Western Australia...
(Vintage BooksVintage BooksVintage Books is a publishing imprint founded in 1954 by Alfred A. Knopf. Its publishing list includes world literature, fiction, and non-fiction...
) - 2004 Moral Hazard by Kate JenningsKate JenningsKate Jennings is an Australian poet, essayist, memoirist, and novelist.-Life:Jennings grew up on a farm near Griffith, New South Wales. She attended the University of Sydney in the late 1960s, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree with honours...
(PicadorPicadorA picador is one of the pair of horsemen in a Spanish bullfight that jab the bull with a lance. They perform in the tercio de varas which is the first of the three stages in a Spanish bullfight.The picador has three main functions:...
) - 2002 True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey (University of Queensland PressUniversity of Queensland PressEstablished in 1948, University of Queensland Press is a dynamic publishing house known for its innovative philosophy and commitment to producing books of high quality and cultural significance...
) - 2000 Mr Darwin’s Shooter by Roger McDonaldRoger McDonaldRoger McDonald is the author of seven novels, two works of non-fiction, and a number of other works....
(Vintage BooksVintage BooksVintage Books is a publishing imprint founded in 1954 by Alfred A. Knopf. Its publishing list includes world literature, fiction, and non-fiction...
) - 1998 The Drowner by Robert DreweRobert DreweRobert Duncan Drewe is an Australian journalist, novelist and short story writer.-Biography:Drewe was born in Melbourne, but moved with his family to Perth, Western Australia at the age of six. He was educated at Hale School, and in his final year was appointed School Captain...
(Pan MacMillan) - 1996 Death of a River Guide by Richard FlanaganRichard FlanaganRichard Flanagan is a novelist from Tasmania, Australia.-Early life:Flanagan was born in Longford, Tasmania, in 1961, the fifth of six children. He is descended from Irish convicts transported to Van Diemen's Land in the 1840s. His father is a survivor of the Burma Death Railway. One of his three...
(McPhee Gribble/Penguin) - 1994 Grand Days by Frank MoorhouseFrank MoorhouseFrank Moorhouse is an acclaimed Australian writer with a growing international reputation. He has won major Australian national prizes for the short story, the novel, the essay, and for script writing....
(William Heinemann Australia) - 1992 The Great World by David MaloufDavid MaloufDavid George Joseph Malouf is an acclaimed Australian writer. He was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2000, his 1993 novel Remembering Babylon won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1996, he won the inaugural Australia-Asia Literary Award in 2008, and he was...
(Chatto & Windus) - 1990 Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey (University of Queensland PressUniversity of Queensland PressEstablished in 1948, University of Queensland Press is a dynamic publishing house known for its innovative philosophy and commitment to producing books of high quality and cultural significance...
) - 1988 Julia Paradise by Rod Jones (McPhee Gribble)
- 1986 The Children’s Bach by Helen GarnerHelen GarnerHelen Garner is an award-winning Australian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist.-Life:Garner was born in Geelong, Victoria, the eldest of six children. She attended Manifold Heights State School, Ocean Grove State School and then The Hermitage in Geelong...
(McPhee Gribble)
Children’s Literature Award
- 2010 Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun TanShaun TanShaun Tan is the illustrator and author of award-winning children's books such as The Red Tree, The Lost Thing and The Arrival...
(Allen and Unwin) - 2008 Don't Call Me Ishmael! by Michael Gerard BauerMichael Gerard BauerMichael Gerard Bauer was an Australian English teacher but is now a full-time Children's and Young Adult author.Bauer was born in Brisbane and attended Marist College, Ashgrove before attending the University of Queensland...
(Omnibus Scholastic) - 2006 It’s Not All About You, Calma! by Barry JonsbergBarry JonsbergBarry Jonsberg is an Australian author and teacher who was born in Liverpool. He earned two degrees in English and Psychology from Liverpool University and was a college lecturer in Crewe, Cheshire before moving to Australia in 1999....
(Allen and Unwin) - 2004 Abyssinia by Ursula DubosarskyUrsula DubosarskyUrsula Dubosarsky is an Australian writer of fiction and non-fiction for children and young adults. She has won nine national literary prizes, including five NSW Premier's Literary Awards, more than any other writer in the Awards' 30 year history...
(Viking Penguin) - 2002 Lirael by Garth NixGarth NixGarth Nix is an Australian author of young adult fantasy novels, most notably the Old Kingdom series, The Seventh Tower series, and The Keys to the Kingdom series. He has frequently been asked if his name is a pseudonym, to which he has responded, "I guess people ask me because it sounds like the...
(HarperCollinsHarperCollinsHarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
) - 2000 Deadly, Unna? by Phillip Gwynne (Puffin Penguin)
- 1998 The Listmaker by Robin Klein (Viking Penguin)
- 1996 The Third Day, The Frost by John MarsdenJohn Marsden (writer)John Marsden is an Australian writer, teacher and school principal. Marsden has had his books translated into nine languages including Swedish, Norwegian, French, German, Dutch, Danish, Italian and Spanish....
(Pan MacMillan Australia) - 1994 Angel’s Gate by Gary CrewGary Crew-Life:Gary Crew was born in Brisbane, Queensland on 23 September 1947. An illness during childhood kept him home from school but enabled him to develop an interest in reading adventure stories....
(William Heinemann Australia) - 1992 The House Guest by Eleanor Nilsson (Viking Penguin)
- 1990 Beyond the Labyrinth by Gillian RubinsteinGillian RubinsteinGillian Rubinstein is an English-born children's author and playwright. Born in Potten End, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England, Rubinstein split her childhood between England and Nigeria, moving to Australia in 1973. As well as eight plays, numerous short stories and articles, she has written...
(Hyland House) - 1988 Space Demons by Gillian RubinsteinGillian RubinsteinGillian Rubinstein is an English-born children's author and playwright. Born in Potten End, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England, Rubinstein split her childhood between England and Nigeria, moving to Australia in 1973. As well as eight plays, numerous short stories and articles, she has written...
(Omnibus Books) - 1986 The Long Night Watch by Ivan SouthallIvan SouthallIvan Francis Southall AM, DFC was an award-winning Australian writer of young-adult fiction and non-fiction. He was the first and still the only Australian to win the Carnegie Medal in Literature for children's literature. His books include Hills End, Ash Road, Josh, and Let the Balloon Go...
(Methuen)
John Bray Poetry Award
- 2010 The Other Way Out by Bronwyn LeaBronwyn LeaBronwyn Lea is a contemporary Australian poet, academic and editor.-Biography:Born in Tasmania, Bronwyn Lea grew up in Queensland and Papua New Guinea, moving to San Diego to study at California State University...
(Giramondo poets) - 2008 Urban Myths: 210 Poems by John TranterJohn TranterJohn Ernest Tranter is an Australian poet, publisher and editor. He has a long list of achievements in writing, publishing and broadcasting...
(University of Queensland PressUniversity of Queensland PressEstablished in 1948, University of Queensland Press is a dynamic publishing house known for its innovative philosophy and commitment to producing books of high quality and cultural significance...
) - 2006 Totem by Luke DaviesLuke DaviesLuke Davies is an Australian writer of novels, poetry and screenplays, born in Sydney in 1962.Davies' first poetry collection, Four Plots for Magnets, was published in 1982, when he was twenty....
(Allen and Unwin) - 2004 Wild Surmise by Dorothy PorterDorothy PorterDorothy Featherstone Porter was an Australian poet.-Early life:Porter was born in Sydney. Her father was barrister Chester Porter and her mother, Jean, was a high school chemistry teacher. Porter attended the Queenwood School for Girls...
(PicadorPicadorA picador is one of the pair of horsemen in a Spanish bullfight that jab the bull with a lance. They perform in the tercio de varas which is the first of the three stages in a Spanish bullfight.The picador has three main functions:...
) - 2002 Around Here by Cath Kenneally (Wakefield PressWakefield PressWakefield Press is an independent book publishing company in Australia, based in the Adelaide suburb of Kent Town, South Australia. They publish an eclectic list diverse in subject, tone and point, with strong suits in true stories, gastronomy, history, literature and gift books.-History:Wakefield...
) - 2000 The Harbour by Dimitris TsaloumasDimitris Tsaloumas-Biography:Dimitris Tsaloumas was born in Greece on the island of Leros, one of the Dodecanese islands, which were then under Italian rule . Consequently his formal education was in Italian. His later schooling was on Rhodes where he also studied the violin...
(University of Queensland PressUniversity of Queensland PressEstablished in 1948, University of Queensland Press is a dynamic publishing house known for its innovative philosophy and commitment to producing books of high quality and cultural significance...
) - 1998 The Blue Cloud of Crying by Peter BoylePeter BoylePeter Lawrence Boyle, Jr. was an American actor, best known for his role as Frank Barone on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, and as a comical monster in Mel Brooks' film spoof Young Frankenstein ....
(Hale & Ironmonger) - 1996 The Silo: A Pastoral Symphony by John Kinsella (Fremantle Arts Centre Press)
- 1994 Between Glances by Andrew Lansdown (Fremantle Arts Centre Press)
- 1992 Last Poems by Vincent BuckleyVincent BuckleyVincent Thomas Buckley was an Australian poet, teacher, editor, essayist and critic.-Life:He was born in 1925 in Romsey, Victoria and was educated at both the University of Melbourne and the :University of Cambridge, and died in Melbourne in 1988..Buckley edited the magazine, Prospect, from 1958...
(McPhee Gribble) - 1990 Bone Scan by Gwen HarwoodGwen HarwoodGwen Harwood AO , née Gwendoline Nessie Foster, was an Australian poet and librettist. Gwen Harwood is regarded as one of Australia's finest poets, publishing over 420 works, including 386 poems and 13 librettos. She won numerous poetry awards and prizes...
(Angus & Robertson) - 1988 The Daylight Moon by Les MurrayLes Murray (poet)Leslie Allan Murray, AO , known as Les Murray, is an Australian poet, anthologist and critic. His career spans over forty years, and he has published nearly 30 volumes of poetry, as well as two verse novels and collections of his prose writings...
(Angus & Robertson) - 1986 Selected Poems - 1963–1983 by Robert GrayRobert Gray (poet)Robert William Geoffrey Gray is an Australian poet, freelance writer, and critic.-Biography:Gray grew up in Coffs Harbour and was educated in a country town on the north coast of New South Wales. He trained there as a journalist, and since then has worked in Sydney as an editor, advertising...
(Angus & Robertson)
Innovation award
- 2010 Barley Patch by Gerald MurnaneGerald Murnane- Life :Murnane was born in Coburg, Melbourne, and has almost never left the state of Victoria. Parts of his childhood were spent in Bendigo and the Western District. In 1956 he matriculated from De La Salle College Malvern....
(Giramondo PublishingGiramondo PublishingGiramondo Publishing is an Australian small press. It is a publisher of Australian literary writing and also published HEAT magazine until its closure in 2011....
) - 2008 Someone Else: Fictional Essays by John HughesJohn Hughes (writer)John Hughes is a Sydney-based Australian writer and teacher. His first book of autobiographical essays, The Idea Of Home, published by Giramondo in 2004, was widely acclaimed and won both the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards for Non-Fiction and the National Biography Award .-The Idea of...
(Giramondo PublishingGiramondo PublishingGiramondo Publishing is an Australian small press. It is a publisher of Australian literary writing and also published HEAT magazine until its closure in 2011....
) - 2006
1-100 by MTC Cronin (Shearsman Books) - 2004 The Eastern Slope Chronicle by Ouyang YuOuyang YuOuyang Yu is a contemporary Chinese-Australian author, translator and academic.Ouyang Yu was born in the People's Republic of China, arriving in Australia in 1991 to study for a Ph. D. at La Trobe University which he completed in 1995. Since then his literary output has been prodigious...
(Brandl and Schlesinger)
The Mayne Award for Multimedia
(formerly the Faulding Award for Multimedia)- 2004 Concatenation by Geniwate (www.idaspoetics.com.au/generative/generative.html)
- 2002 Poems in a Flash @ The Stalking Tongue website Jayne Fenton Keane and David Keane (www.poetinresidence.com)
- 2000 Carrier by Melinda Rackham (www.subtle.net/carrier)
- 1998 FlightPaths: Writing Journeys by Julie Clarke, Rob Finlayson, Tom Gibson, Denise Higgins, berni
m janssen, Nazid Kimmie and Adrian Marshall
Wakefield Press Unpublished Manuscript Award
- 2010 End of the Night Girl by Amy T Matthews
- 2008 The Second Fouling Mark by Stephen Orr
- 2006 The Quakers by Rachel Hennessy
- 2004 Goddamn Bus of Happiness by Stefan Laszczuk
- 2002 The Black Dream by Corrie Hosking
- 2000 No winner
- 1998 Counting The Rivers by Pearlie McNeil
Jill Blewett Playwright’s award
- 2010 This Place by Nina Pearce
- 2008 Merger - art, life and the other thing by Duncan Graham
- 2006 This Uncharted Hour by Finegan Kruckemeyer
- 2004 Beautiful Words: A Trilogy by Sean Riley
- 2002 Small Faith by Josh Tyler
- 2000 Who’s Afraid of the Working Class? By Andrew Bovell, Patricia Cornelius, Melissa Reeves & Christos Tsiolkas (Melbourne Workers Theatre)
- 1998 Wolf Lullaby by Hilary Bell (Griffin Theatre Company)
- 1996 Because You Are Mine by Daniel Keene (Red Shed)
- 1994 Sweetown by Melissa Reeves (Red Shed)
- 1992 Bran Nue Dae by Jimmy Chi (Kuckles and Bran Nue Dae Productions)
Barbara Hanrahan Fellowship
- 2010 Patrick Allington
- 2008 Steve Evans
- 2006 Mike Ladd
- 2004 Kirsty Brooks
- 2002 Graham Rowlands
- 2000 Jan Owen
- 1998 Cath Kenneally
- 1996 Moya Costello
- 1994 Barry Westburg
Carclew Fellowship
- 2010 Nicole Plüss
- 2008 Rosanne Hawke
- 2006 Christine Harris
- 2004 Marguerite Hann-Syme
- 2002 Ruth Starke
- 2000 Ian Bone
- 1998 Phil Cummings
- 1996 Chris Tugwell
- 1994 Peter McFarlane
- 1992 Anne Brookman
- 1990 Anne-Marie Mykyta
- 1988 Geoff Goodfellow