UQP titles shortlisted for the 2023 Queensland Literary Awards
UQP are delighted to share the news that six UQP authors have been shortlisted across five categories at the 2023 Queensland Literary Awards.
Queensland Premier Award for a Work of State Significance
The Jaguar
by Sarah Holland-Batt
Judges' comments:
Lyrical and compassionate, the poetic skill and engagement of The Jaguar is a moving exploration of family dynamics, ageing, memory, desire, nature, and art, combined with a passionate rage about our care of our elders and a hopeful and optimistic call for change. Technically brilliant and experimental, this collection is intelligent, accessible, nuanced and finely balanced.
Judges' comments:
Bone Memories is a deeply considered and multi-layered examination of the way trauma is held in Australian soil. Through the prism of one near-shattered family, the novel shows that healing is possible when radical listening is at the heart of what we do, so we might move towards radical living.
Children's Book Award
The Way of Dog
by Zana Fraillon
Judges' comments:
A mistreated puppy’s attempt to reconnect with his ‘ManPup’ becomes an odyssey of tragedy, hope, and love. Told in visceral poetry and illustration, this intensely focused narrative, sprinkled with portmanteau words and neologisms, showcases Fraillon’s control of voice, language, and technique to reveal one dog's experience of our challenging world.
University of Southern Queensland Steele Rudd Award for a Short Story Collection
Here Be Leviathans
by Chris Flynn
Judges' comments:
In this wildly inventive collection, Flynn’s unconventional narrators unite to defamiliarise the norms of memory, morality, and mortality. Both comic and touching, the stories fizz with a sharp intelligence while taking an infectious delight in playing games with literary conventions.
Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection
Judges' comments:
Exactly As I Am is an experimental yet accessible exploration of genderqueer politics – Rae White’s fluid use of form skewers the language of conservative politics, authority, and work. Intricate connections and difficulties of identity are performed as vibrant poetry in this tough and vulnerable, joyfully nonconformist account of non-binary living.
The Courier-Mail People's Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award
The Bodyline Fix
by Marion Stell
Judges' comments:
A fresh account of the inaugural women’s Test match between Australia and England in the wake of the controversial Bodyline series in the men’s game. In telling this largely forgotten story, Marion Stell comments on the combined impacts of race, class, and gender while revitalising the profiles of Australia’s first international women cricketers.
Judges' comments:
At the heart of Bone Memories is landscape: the inner terrain of memory and grief, and the physical landscapes upon which Piper’s characters memorialise their grief and reach for healing. A meditation upon scarring and beauty, this is a novel of rare power and grace.
Winners will be announced at a ceremony on 6 September at the State Library of Victoria. You can cast your votes now for the People's Choice Award!
Exactly As I Am
The Jaguar
Bone Memories
Here Be Leviathans
