Booked Out would like to congratulate the winners of the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards, including Booked Outer Alice Pung, whose novel Laurinda (Black Inc.) won the Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature. Well Done!

Thirty judges had the formidable task of deciding upon a winner from a record 500 entries, selecting Indigenous writer Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu (Magabala Books) as Book of the Year. The culturally significant work, which uses the journals of early explorers to challenge the dominant narrative about the nature of pre-colonial Aboriginal culture was also awarded the first ever Indigenous Writers Prize.

We would also like to congratulate the following Book Outers who made the shortlist:

• Abdi Aden & Robert Hillman, Shining: The Story of a Lucky Man (HarperCollins) – Multicultural NSW Award
• Tony Birch, Ghost River (University of Queensland Press) – Christina Stead Prize for Fiction & Indigenous Writer’s Prize
• Brian Falkner, Battlesaurus: Rampage at Waterloo (Pan Macmillan) – Ethel Turner Prize for Young Adult’s Literature
• Sue Lawson, Freedom Ride (Black Dog Books) – Ethel Turner Prize for Young Adult’s Literature
• Gabrielle Williams, The Guy, the Girl, the Artist and his Ex (Allen & Unwin) – Ethel Turner Prize for Young Adult’s Literature

The Team at Booked Out look forward to reading our way through this impressive selection of Australian stories!