And so it, starts, the Literary Awards trail! Early in the year will be the Stella Prize, but first up is the Indie Book Awards. These are lovely awards, because they are run by Australia’s Independent Booksellers – who are members of Leading Edge Books – and we love to support them don’t we? Consequently, I’ve decided to share them this year. (I don’t list every award, every year, but just select a few to give a flavour to the year’s Awards scene!)

The Press Release I received reminds us of the Awards’s role and history. They were established in 2008, and, they say, have developed “a well-deserved reputation for picking the best of the best in Australian writing”. They “recognise and celebrate this country’s incredible talent and the role independent booksellers play in supporting and nurturing Australian writing.”

Past Book of the Year winners have gone on to be bestsellers and win other major literary awards, and include Charlotte Wood’s The natural way of things by Charlotte Wood (my review); Don Watson’s The bush (on my TBR); Richard Flanagan’s The narrow road to the deep north (my review); Anna Funder’s All that I am (still on my TBR); Craig Silvey’s Jasper Jones (read before blogging); and Tim Winton’s Breath (my post).

The shortlisted books have been nominated by independent booksellers, but the winners in each category will be selected by judging panels. The booksellers, though, get to vote for their favourites in each category too. And, there is also an overall Book of the year which is what those examples I mentioned above won.)

The list seems a reasonable one though we could make the usual comments about diversity. There’s not a lot of it here, though indigenous writers (Marcia Langton, and Ambelin Kwaymullina & Ezekiel Kwaymullina) appear in the categories I haven’t listed here.

The shortlist

Fiction

• Jane Harper’s The lost man (Macmillan Australia)
• Kristina Olsson’s Shell (Scribner Australia) (Lisa’s review)
• Tim Winton’s The shepherd’s hut (Penguin Random House Australia)
• Markus Zusak’s Bridge of clay (Picador Australia)

 Non-Fiction

• Richard Glover’s The land before avocado (ABC Books, HarperCollins Australia): Mr Gums is reading this now
• Chloe Hooper’s The arsonist (Penguin Random House Australia) (Lisa’s review)
• Bri Lee’s Eggshell skull (Allen & Unwin)
• Leigh Sales’ Any ordinary day (Penguin Random House Australia)

Debut fiction

• Trent Dalton’s Boy swallows universe (HarperCollins Australia): (my review)
• Chris Hammer’s Scrublands (Allen & Unwin)
• Heather Morris’s The tattooist of Auschwitz (Echo Publishing) (Lisa’s review)
• Christian White’s The nowhere child (Affirm Press)

There are also shortlists for Illustrated non-fiction, Children’s and Young Adult. For the full list, check out the website. 

The Winners will be announced on Monday 18 March, 2019 at the Leading Edge Books Annual Conference Awards Dinner, in Adelaide, SA.

The Indie Book Awards list their main sponsors for these awards: Peribo, Pan Macmillan Australia, Affirm Press, Allen & Unwin, Thames & Hudson Australia, Hardie Grant Egmont, Text Publishing, and Awards partner: Books+Publishing.