The shortlists for the Kibble and Dobbie Literary Awards were announced last week.

The shortlisted authors for the Kibble Literary Award ($30, 000 prize) for the work of an established Australian woman writer are:

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Annah Faulkner The Beloved
Cate Kennedy Like a House on Fire
Michelle de Kretser Questions of Travel
The shortlisted authors for the Dobbie Literary Award ($5, 000 prize) for a first-published work are:

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Romy Ash Floundering
Lily Chan Toyo: A memoir (not yet reviewed for the AWW Challenge so please send us your reviews)
Courtney Collins The Burial

The chair of the 2013 Kibble judging committee, Dr Brigid Rooney, said:  “Certain themes have dominated this year, demonstrating how far women have come in 20 years, let alone in the century since Nita B. Kibble first joined the NSW State Library. Many of the works this year are steeped in Australian landscapes, culture and experience, yet simultaneously range confidently and naturally beyond national borders. Women writers are imaginatively inhabiting the viewpoint of many different lives and characters, across time and space, as well as gender, age and culture.”

Dr Rooney said it had been a “landmark year” for Australian women writers as various long and shortlists for other literary prizes in 2013 have shown. She said the Kibble Awards are distinctive because they recognise books by women that are about or in connection with life in Australia and can be classified as “life writing” be they novels, autobiographies, biographies, literature or other writing.

The 2013 Kibble Awards Judges are:

  • Dr Brigid Rooney, Senior Lecturer in Australian Literature at the University of Sydney.
  • Ms Jean Bedford, Novelist and short story writer, board member of the NSW Writers’ Centre and co-editor of the online journal the Newtown Review of Books.
  • Ms Maggie Patton, Manager of the Original Materials Branch of the State Library of NSW.

You can read more about the awards and the longlisted titles in a roundup by AWW contributing editor Jessica White.

The Kibble Awards winners will be announced on Wednesday, 24 July.

About Me

I’m a freelance book reviewer, journalist and editor and have worked as a librarian for many years. I’m always feeling guilty about what I ‘should’ have or ‘should be reading.’ I signed up for the AWW challenge in 2012 and this year, as well as doing my own challenge, I will be posting updates about Literary Awards and writing features. I blog over at Wordsville and you can find me on Twitter @PaulaGrunseit