Queensland Premier's Awards

The shortlist for the 2008 Queensland Premier's Literary Awards was announced 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Unpublished Indigenous Writer (The David Unaipon Award)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.