Entries open for 2022 Queensland Literary Awards
12 April 2022
Entries are open for the 2022 Queensland Literary Awards until Friday 29 April 2022. A total of A$125,000 in prize money across eight categories is on offer. In addition, there are four development awards for unpublished manuscripts, and Queensland writers only, valued at A$62,000.
The Queensland Literary Awards showcase outstanding authors from across Australia, celebrating emerging and established authors across a range of genres. State Library of Queensland is proud to manage the awards in collaboration with sponsors, the literary community, and industry partners. On offer are eight national prizes for outstanding published books by Australian writers, illustrators and creators. This includes the $25,000 Queensland Premier’s Award for a work of State Significance which highlights a uniquely Queensland story.
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The 2022 Hugo Awards shortlist
12 April 2022
It doesn’t seem so long ago that the winners of the 2021 Hugo Awards were announced, but the shortlist for the 2022 awards, which recognise the work of science-fiction and fantasy writers, has been unveiled. This year works spanning nineteen award categories have made the cut, with winners being named on Sunday 4 September 2022, at Chicon 8, in the American city of Chicago.
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To honour honey bees, a commemorative two-dollar coin
11 April 2022
Image courtesy of Royal Australian Mint.
Australia’s honey bee industry is officially two hundred years old this year. To mark the milestone, the Royal Australian Mint will soon be making available a commemorative two-dollar coin adorned with two honey bees, and feature a distinct honey-coloured honeycomb centre.
Since its introduction in 1988, the Australian two dollar coin has featured a number of colourfully designed centres, making certain pieces particularly collectible, and in some cases, worth somewhat more than their two-dollar face value. It might be an idea to check through the loose change in your coin jar…
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Those Who Perish, by Emma Viskic
11 April 2022
Those Who Perish (published by Allen & Unwin, March 2022) is the new novel from Melbourne based Australian author Emma Viskic, and is the fourth, and concluding, title in the Caleb Zelic series of novels.
Deaf PI Caleb Zelic has always been an outsider, estranged from family and friends. But when he receives a message that his brother, Anton, is in danger, Caleb sees it as a chance at redemption. He tracks Anton down to a small, wind-punished island, where secrets run deep and resentments deeper. When a sniper starts terrorising the isolated community, the brothers must rely on each other like never before. But trust comes at a deadly price…
For devotees of mystery and crime writing, Viskic will be speaking about Those Who Perish this evening, Monday 11 April 2022, at Brisbane’s Avid Reader Bookshop.
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Boiling Point, a film by Philip Barantini
11 April 2022
I once had a housemate who worked as a chef. When he wasn’t on the job — which didn’t seem to be often — he refused to cook. At all. A solitary jar of vegemite, and a loaf of bread, were the only foodstuffs to be found on his shelf in the pantry of the kitchen. Before moving in, another housemate warned me not to expect culinary feasts to be served.
Perhaps Boiling Point, trailer, the new drama feature from Britsh filmmaker Philip Barantini, goes someway to explaining my former housemate’s reluctance to go near a kitchen outside of working hours. Who’d want to be thinking about their pressure-cooker like workplace environment when they weren’t on duty?
On the busiest night of the year at one of the hottest restaurants in London, charismatic, commanding head chef Andy Jones balances along a knife’s edge as multiple personal and professional crises threaten to destroy everything he’s worked for. A surprise visit from a health and safety inspector sets the staff on edge as the overbooked hotspot begins to fill with guests. Jones alternately berates and cajoles his diverse staff, trying his best to diffuse tensions between management and his crew, while catering to the ridiculous demands of customers.
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Vale Ken West, Big Day Out co-founder
9 April 2022
Ken West, co-founder of Australian music festival, the Big Day Out, died on Thurday 7 April 2022, aged 64. West established the festival in 1992 with Vivian Lees. The first event was a one show only affair, held at the iconic Hordern Pavilion in inner Sydney, and included Nirvana on the lineup. The event went onto play in other Australian capital cities, and Auckland, New Zealand, becoming an annual summer fixture.
The last Big Day Out took place in 2014. Soon after, American concert promoter and events management company C3 Presents took full ownership of the event, and cancelled the scheduled 2015 shows. While they intended to bring the Big Day Out back at some point, so far there has been no word as to when this might happen.
Update: Yeah, actually I put the bloody thing on… former Triple J host, writer, and TV producer, Marieke Hardy recounts a meeting with Ken West after one of the Melbourne Big Day Out shows in the late-nineties.
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New Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series books on the way
9 April 2022
Big news for fans of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series of books: another three novels are on the way. Karin Smirnoff will continue the work of the late Swedish journalist and writer Stieg Larsson who created the original Millennium novel series, and the character of Lisbeth Salander, in 2002.
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The 2021 Aurealis Awards shortlist
9 April 2022
The Aurealis Awards have been celebrating the work of Australian science fiction, fantasy, and horror writers since 1995, and the shortlist for the 2021 awards was announced last week.
Titles have been nominated in fifteen categories: Best Graphic Novel / Illustrated Work, Best Young Adult Short Story, Best Horror Short Story, Best Horror Novella, Best Fantasy Short Story, Best Fantasy Novella, Best Science Fiction Short Story, Best Science Fiction Novella, Best Collection, Best Anthology, Best Young Adult Novel, Best Fantasy Novel, Best Horror Novel, Best Science Fiction Novel, Best Children’s Fiction, plus the Sara Douglass Book Series Award.
The winners will be named on Saturday evening, 28 May 2022, at the The Hellenic Club in Canberra.
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The 2022 International Booker Prize shortlist
8 April 2022
The 2022 International Booker Prize shortlist was announced yesterday, and includes the following six titles:
- Heaven, by Mieko Kawakami
- Elena Knows, by Claudia Piñeiro
- A New Name: Septology VI-VII, by Jon Fosse
- Tomb of Sand, by Geetanjali Shree
- The Books of Jacob, by Olga Tokarczuk
- Cursed Bunny, by Bora Chung
The first thing that grabbed me when looking at the shortlisted titles was the variation in their size. For instance Mieko Kawakami’s Heaven is about 192 pages in length, while The Books of Jacob, by Olga Tokarczuk, weighs in at some 990 pages.
That’s a little bit of reading for those who’d like to familiarise themselves with the six works, before the winner is named on Thursday 26 May 2022.
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#IndieApril and ways to support writers everywhere
7 April 2022
While there may not be a whole lot of Australian government support for authors in this part of the world, as book readers there are things we can do. Jake Uniacke posted a few #IndieApril suggestions on Twitter, but these are ideas that can be acted upon at anytime of the year.
- Review their work. Goodreads, Amazon, and Google are good places to start.
- Share their work. Spread the word on your social media channels, Twitter, Facebook, BookTok, and Bookstagram.
- Buy their books. Through the author’s website if possible, or an indie bookshop, any bookshop really.
- Interact with their content. Instagram stories, Twitter polls, and Q&A sessions, are a few suggestions.
Joe Walters, writing for Independent Book Review, also offers a number of suggestions.
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