Media Release
Premier's Prize Winners Announced
10 November 2003
The Premier, Steve Bracks, tonight announced the ten winners of the prestigious Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards 2003 at the Sofitel Melbourne.
This year’s Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction has been won by writer Brian Castro with his novel Shanghai Dancing.
Shanghai Dancing is a 'fictional biography' about a writer who recovers his sense of a homeland by returning to China. The novel moves across centuries, locations and chronologies to tell the story of writer, Antonio Castro.
Brian Castro becomes the only writer to have won the Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction three times, surpassing well-known authors and two-time Fiction winners, Peter Carey and Richard Flanagan.
Castro won the Fiction awards in 1993 for his book After China and in 1992 with his work Double Wolf.
'The Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards are part of the State Government’s continuing commitment to the promotion of writing and the pursuit of artistic excellence at state, national and international levels,' Mr Bracks said.
'This year’s entries are indicative of the high standard of writing in Australia.'
In recognition of this, the Bracks Government has increased the awards’ value by $100,000, making them Australia’s richest awards for writers.
The winners across ten categories include former Federal Labor Senator, John Button, winning the Alfred Deakin Prize for an Essay Advancing Public Debate with his work Beyond Belief: What Future for Labor?
In the Nettie Palmer Prize for non-fiction, Barry Hill’s work claimed first prize with a focus on the life of TGH Strehlow, a key figure in the history of Aboriginal-European relations in Australia.
This year’s awards include two new categories, the biennial Prize for Science Writing and the Prize for an Unpublished Manuscript by an Emerging Victorian Writer.
Libby Robin’s work The Flight of the Emu: A Hundred Years of Australian Ornithology 1901-2001 won the Prize for Science Writing.
Budding author Caroline Tiffany won the Prize for an Unpublished Manuscript by an Emerging Victorian Writer with her work The Cultivator. Her novel uses the Mallee town of Wycheproof as its backdrop. The new category received the largest number of entries ever in a single category and comes with a $15,000 prize.
Mr Bracks said the awards once again include some of Australia’s most outstanding and compelling writers and acknowledge Victoria’s leading position in creative and innovative writing.
The Awards were initiated by Premier John Cain in 1985 and are a key element in the promotion of Australia’s creative writers and publishing industry.
The Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards 2003 are administered by the State Library of Victoria.
The Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction
Winner:
Shanghai Dancing
by Brian Castro
Giramondo
The Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-fiction
Winner:
Broken Song: TGH Strehlow and Aboriginal Possession
by Barry Hill
Knopf/Random House
The C J Dennis Prize for Poetry
Winner:
Anything the Landlord Touches
by Emma Lew
Giramondo
The Louis Esson Prize for Drama
Winner:
Rapture
by Joanna Murray-Smith
Playbox/Currency
The Prize for Young Adult Fiction
Winner:
Wildlight
by David Metzenthen
Penguin
The Dinny O’Hearn/SBS Prize for Literary Translation
Winner:
Voyage to Desolation Island
by Jean-Paul Kauffmann.
Translation: Patricia Clancy
Harvill/Random House
The Alfred Deakin Prize for an Essay Advancing Public Debate*
Winner:
Beyond Belief: What Future for Labor?
by John Button
Black Inc/Schwartz Publishing
The Village Roadshow Prize for Screen Writing
Winner:
Alexandra’s Project
by Rolf de Heer
Fandango Australia/Vertigo Productions
The Prize for an Unpublished Manuscript by an Emerging Victorian Writer
Winner:
The Cultivator
by Caroline Tiffany
The Prize for Science Writing
Winner:
The Flight of the Emu: A Hundred Years of Australian Ornithology 1901-2001
by Libby Robin
Melbourne University Press
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