Victorian Premier's Literary Award

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The Victorian Premier's Literary Award is an Australian literary prize that has been awarded by the state of Victoria since 1986 . With a total prize of 265,000  Australian dollars (AU $) and a maximum price of 125,000 AU $, it is the most highly endowed Australian literary prize.

The price

Awards are given in the following categories:

  • Fiction
  • Nonfiction (non-fiction)
  • Poetry
  • Drama (theater)
  • Young Adults (youth book)
  • Indigenous Writing ( Aboriginal literature , awarded biennially)

The winner in each of these categories will receive AU $ 25,000. A grand prize winner will then be selected from the category winners and will receive an additional AU $ 100,000. In addition to the categories mentioned, there is an AU $ 15,000 award for unpublished texts ( Unpublished Manuscript ) and an audience award ( People's Choice Award ).

The award was set up on the initiative of John Cain, then Prime Minister of Victoria. The award took place until 1996 as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival . From 1997 the organization was with the State Library of Victoria and since 2011 the Wheeler Center in Melbourne is responsible. The above categories have existed since 2010. Previously (as of 2009) the following individual prizes were awarded in the following categories:

  • Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction
  • Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-fiction
  • Prize for Young Adult Fiction
  • Prize for an Unpublished Manuscript by an Emerging Victorian Writer
  • CJ Dennis Prize for Poetry
  • Louis Esson Prize for Drama
  • Alfred Deakin Prize for an Essay Advancing Public Debate
  • John Curtin Prize for Journalism
  • Prize for Best Music Theater Script
  • Grollo Ruzzene Foundation Prize for Writing about Italians in Australia
  • Prize for Science Writing

Since 2014, the award refers to the year of the award, until then to the year of publication of the work in question, which means that there was no award for 2013.

In 2019, the award of the award attracted international attention, as the award winner Behrouz Boochani is an Iraqi Kurd who has been interned by Australia as an asylum seeker on the island of Manus for six years and is therefore unlikely to be able to attend the award ceremony. The excellent text No Friend But the Mountains originated from individual text messages sent by Manus in which Boochani reported on his escape via Indonesia to Australia, the situation of the internees and the living conditions in the camp. Speaking at the award ceremony, Boochani said:

"I certainly did not write this book just to win an award. My main aim has always been for the people in Australia and around the world to understand deeply how this system has tortured innocent people on Manus and Nauru in a systematic way for almost six years. I hope this award will bring more attention to our situation, and create change, and end this barbaric policy. "

“I certainly didn't write this book for a prize. My main goal has always been to give people in Australia and around the world a deep understanding of how this system has systematically tortured innocent people on Manus and Nauru for nearly six years. I hope that the award will raise awareness of our situation and bring about change, and an end to this barbaric politics. "

List of award winners

Grand Prize

Fiction

Before 2011, the name of the prize was Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction :

Nonfiction (non-fiction)

Before 2011, the name of the prize was the Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction :

Poetry

Before 2011, the name of the award was CJ Dennis Prize for Poetry :

Drama (theater)

Prior to 2011, the name of the prize was Louis Esson Prize for Drama :

Young People's (youth book)

Indigenous Writing (Aboriginal literature)

Unpublished Manuscript (unpublished texts)

People's Choice Award (audience award)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2019 , accessed February 1, 2019.
  2. ^ Victorian Premier's Literary Awards ( memento March 29, 2016 on the Internet Archive ), State Library of Victoria page.
  3. ↑ a b Behrouz Boochani: detained asylum seeker wins Australia's richest literary prize , article by Calla Wahlquist in The Guardian of January 31, 2019, accessed February 1, 2019.
  4. ↑ Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2018 , accessed February 1, 2019.
  5. ↑ Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2017 , accessed February 1, 2019.
  6. ↑ Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2016 , accessed February 1, 2019.
  7. ↑ Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2015 , accessed February 1, 2019.
  8. ↑ Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2014 , accessed February 1, 2019.
  9. ↑ Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2012 , accessed February 1, 2019.
  10. ↑ Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2011 , accessed February 1, 2019.
  11. ^ Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction ( Memento March 29, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), State Library of Victoria page.
  12. ↑ Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-fiction ( March 29, 2016 memento in the Internet Archive ), State Library of Victoria page.
  13. ^ CJ Dennis Prize for Poetry ( memento March 29, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), State Library of Victoria page.
  14. ^ Louis Esson Prize for Drama ( Memento March 29, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), State Library of Victoria page.