Kibble and Dobbie Awards 2015 longlists announced

9 April 2015 Books+Publishing

The longlists for this year’s Kibble and Dobbie Literary Awards have been announced.

The longlisted titles for the $30,000 Kibble Literary Award, which recognises the work of an established Australian female writer, are:

Warning: The Story of Cyclone Tracy (Sophie Cunningham, Text)
This House of Grief (Helen Garner, Text)
In Certain Circles (Elizabeth Harrower, Text)
The Golden Age (Joan London, Vintage)
When the Night Comes (Favel Parrett, Hachette)
Hunger Town (Wendy Scarfe, Wakefield Press).

The longlisted titles for the $5000 Dobbie Literary Award, which recognises the work of a first-time published Australian female writer, are:

Foreign Soil (Maxine Beneba Clarke, Hachette)
The Strays (Emily Bitto, Affirm Press)
After Darkness (Christine Piper, A&U)
Sideshow (Nicole Smith, Xoum)
Game Day (Miriam Sved, Picador)
Heat and Light (Ellen van Neerven, UQP).

Speaking on behalf of the judging panel, Elizabeth Webby said: ‘The calibre of entries this year was high, reflecting the strength of Australian female writing today in both fiction and nonfiction. The longlisted titles deal with a striking variety of themes, are set in vastly different times and places, but all display great imaginative power and depth in their presentation of aspects of Australian life.’

The shortlists will be announced on 3 June ahead of the winners announcement on 15 July.

The Kibble and Dobbie Literary Awards are open to Australian female writers who have published a book of fiction or nonfiction classifiable as ‘life writing’. In 2014, the Kibble Literary Award was presented to Kristina Olsson for Boy, Lost: A Family Memoir (UQP) and the Dobbie Literary Award was presented to Kate Richards for Madness: A Memoir (Penguin).

For more information about the awards, click here.

Category: Local news