JCU Colin Roderick Award 2015 winner announced

The Foundation for Australian Literary Studies at James Cook University has awarded Michael Wilding the $10,000 Colin Roderick Award and H T Priestley Memorial Medal 2015 for his book Wild Bleak Bohemia (Australian Scholarly Publishing).

Wild Bleak Bohemia follows ‘three troubled geniuses of Australian writing—Marcus Clarke, Adam Lindsay Gordon and Henry Kendall—and their world of poetry and poverty, alcohol and opiates, horse-racing and theatre, journalism and publishing’.

In a statement the judges said: ‘At its heart, the book is a meticulously researched yet extraordinarily understanding account of the painful blend of melancholia and tragedy on one side, and achievement and elation on the other, which characterised the lives of these three foundational Australian literary figures.’

The award and medal are presented to the title the judges determine is ‘the best book that is published in Australia in the previous calendar year, which deals with any aspect of Australian life’.

The winner was chosen from a shortlist of seven, which was announced in August. For more information on the award, visit the website here.

Category: Local news