The Slap wins Commonwealth Writers' Prize

Christos Tsiolkas has won the Overall Best Book Award for The Slap (watch The First Tuesday Book Club on ABC TV review the book here) in the Commonwealth Writers' Prize (CWP), announced on Saturday at the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival. The Best First Book Award went to Pakistani author Mohammed Hanif for A Case of Exploding Mangoes.

The Governor-General of New Zealand, Hon Sir Anand Satyanand, presented the prizes, worth £10,000 (AU$20,025) and £5,000 (AU$10,012) respectively. Chair of the judging panel the Hon Justice Nicholas Hasluck called The Slap a ‘controversial and daring novel'.

Read more here....

Miles Franklin Literary Award

The Miles Franklin Literary Award, our first and most prestigious literary award, was established in 1954 with a bequest from the author Miles Franklin. She was concerned to see Australian literature flourish and knew first hand the struggles most authors have in Australia.

The Miles Franklin Literary Award celebrates Australian character and creativity and nurtures the continuing life of literature about Australia. It is awarded for the novel of the year which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phase.

The Longlist

The ten novels selected for the Miles Franklin Literary Award 2009 longlist are:

Novel	Author
Addition	Toni Jordan
A Fraction of the Whole	Steve Toltz
Breath	Tim Winton
fugitive blue	Claire Thomas
Ice	Louis Nowra
one foot wrong	Sofie Laguna
The Devil's Eye	Ian Townsend
The Pages	Murray Bail
The Slap	Christos Tsiolkas
Wanting	Richard Flanagan

The shortlist will be announced on the 16th April and the winner will be announced on the 18th June.

Orange Prize for Fiction

The Orange Prize for Fiction longlist was announced on March 18, 2009.

The Orange Prize for Fiction is awarded to the woman who, in the opinion of the judges, has written the best, eligible full-length novel in English.

The prize is open to any full length novel, written in English by a woman of any nationality, provided that the novel is published for the first time in the United Kingdom between 1 April of the year before the prize is awarded and 31 March of the year in which the prize is awarded.

Orange Prize for Fiction 2009 Longlist

Debra Adelaide The Household Guide to Dying
Gaynor Arnold Girl in a Blue Dress
Lissa Evans Their Finest Hour and a Half
Bernardine Evaristo Blonde Roots
Ellen Feldman Scottsboro
Laura Fish Strange Music
V.V. Ganeshananthan Love Marriage
Allegra Goodman Intuition
Samantha Harvey The Wilderness
Samantha Hunt The Invention of Everything Else
Michelle de Kretser The Lost Dog
Deirdre Madden Molly Fox’s Birthday
Toni Morrison A Mercy
Gina Ochsner The Russian Dreambook of Colour and Flight
Marilynne Robinson Home
Preeta Samarasan Evening is the Whole Day
Kamila Shamsie Burnt Shadows
Curtis Sittenfeld American Wife
Miriam Toews The Flying Troutmans
Ann Weisgarber The Personal History of Rachel DuPree