The Australian Society of Authors has announced the 2010 shortlist for the Barbara Jefferis Award.
The award, valued at $35,000, honours Australian novels with high standards of literary merit that depict women and girls in a positive way or otherwise empower the status of women and girls in society.
Judges Susan Martin, Gina Mercer and Elizabeth Webby read 58 novels (all but three written by women) and shortlisted five. The shortlist includes two first novels, and the first novel by a male author ever to be shortlisted for the award:
- The Lost Life (Steven Carroll, Fourth Estate)
- Swimming (Enza Gandolfo, Vanark Press)
- The World Beneath (Cate Kennedy, Scribe)
- The China Garden (Kristina Olsson, UQP)
- Headlong (Susan Varga, UWA Publishing).
Two novels by new authors (one, by Lili Wilkinson, for young adults) were highly commended for their original and positive representations of women and girls:
- A True History of the Hula Hoop (Judith Lanigan, Picador)
- Pink (Lili Wilkinson, A&U).
The winner will be announced in Sydney on Sunday 14 March 2010. For more information, visit the Australian Society of Authors website.
