People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year 2015 shortlist announced

The State Library of Queensland has announced the shortlist for the Courier-Mail People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year award, as part of the 2015 Queensland Literary Awards (QLA) program.

The shortlisted titles are:

• Analogue Men (Nick Earls, Vintage)
• Navigatio (Patrick Holland, Transit Lounge)
• Nest (Inga Simpson, Hachette)
• The Ash Burner (Kari Gislason, UQP)
• Joe’s Fruit Shop and Milk Bar (Zoe Boccabella, ABC Books)
• On the Road… with Kids (John Ahern, Macmillan)
• The Murder of Allison Baden-Clay (David Murray, Ebury)
• From Convict to Politician (Mary Lou Simpson, Boolarong Press).

State librarian Janette Wright said the shortlist, which includes true crime, memoir and new fiction titles, showed the ‘incredible diversity of Queensland writing talent’.

The People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year is awarded to an outstanding book by a Queensland author. This year’s $10,000 prize will be co-sponsored by the Courier Mail and the Queensland government, with each contributing $5000. Voting for the prize is open to the public at the QLA website until 18 September. The winner will be announced at the QLA ceremony on 9 October.

Shortlisted nominations in the other 2015 QLA categories will be announced in September. As previously reported by Books+Publishing, the Queensland government announced in May it will contribute up to $175,000 annually to the QLA, matching up to $125,000 in sponsor and partnership funding and establishing two new awards. To read more about the awards, click here.