Writing & Society news, prizes and publications

News, prizes and publications

• Read Writing & Society's 2009: The Year in Review to find out what's happened this year.
• Congratulations to Writing & Society postgraduate research candidate, Kristel Thornell, who has jointly won the Vogel Literary Award, for an unpublished manuscript written by an author under 35. Kristel's manuscript Night Street, based on the life of the Melbourne artist Clarice Beckett, will be published by Allen & Unwin in 2010. The project forms part of the PhD Kristel is working on with Prof. Nicholas Jose. Read more here and here.
• Giramondo publisher, Evelyn Juers, has been shortlisted for the 2009 Prime Minister's Literary Awards (non-fiction), for her work House of Exile: The Life and Times of Heinrich Mann and Nelly Kroeger-Mann (Giramondo, 2008).
• Gerald Murnane, whose novel Barley Patch (his first published work of fiction since 1995) will be published by Giramondo next month, has been shortlisted for the Melbourne Prize for Literature. This award is for a significant body of work by a Melbourne author. Lisa Gorton (Press Release, Giramondo, 2007) and Tom Cho (Look Who's Morphing, Giramondo, 2009) are nominated in the New Writing category, for a published work by a Melbourne writer under 40. Vote for the People's Choice Award at www.melbourneprizetrust.org
• Tom Cho's Look Who's Morphing was nominated for the Age Book of the Year award for fiction, and Kate Middleton's Fire Season in the poetry category. Evelyn Juer's House of Exile: The Life and Times of Heinrich Mann and Nelly Kroger-Mann was nominated for the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards Nettie Palmer Prize for non-fiction, and Bronwyn Lea's The Other Way Out for the CJ Dennis Prize for poetry.
• The Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature (Allen & Unwin), of which Prof. Nicholas Jose is the general editor, was officially launched by Governor-General Quentin Bryce on 30 July 2009. The Anthology charts the development of Australian literature in all forms, including fiction, poetry, drama, diaries, letters and essays.
• Hear Nicholas Jose talk about the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature on Radio National
• Congratulations to Adjunct Prof. Jane Goodall who shared the 2009 ABR Calibre Prize with Kevin Brophy. Jane's essay, "Footprints", was published in Australian Book Review's April 2009 issue.
• Listen to Prof. Nicholas Jose's inaugural professorial lecture, "Australian literature: where's the body?", delivered in April 2009.