2010 ADELAIDE FESTIVAL AWARDS FOR LITERATURE SHORTLIST

NOMINATIONS UP, AS SHORTLISTS ANNOUNCED FOR 2010 ADELAIDE FESTIVAL AWARDS FOR LITERATURE

With nominations up by almost 100 this year, the shortlists for the 2010 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature are now hot off the press.

The winners will be announced at 4pm on Sunday February 28 (the first day of Adelaide Writers' Week) in a presentation open to the public in the East Tent, Pioneer Women's Memorial Gardens.

Established by the SA Government in 1986 the awards are managed through Arts SA and granted biennially, with a prize pool this year of $130,000. There are six national awards as well as two awards and two fellowships specifically for South Australian writers.

The most coveted national award is the Premier's Award ($10,000), which is selected from amongst the winners of the published categories.

In addition, there are two SA Fellowships (valued at $15,000 each) designed to provide two SA writers with a living allowance while they pursue writing projects - these are the Barbara Hanrahan Fellowship (open to writers in the areas of fiction, poetry, drama, scriptwriting, autobiography, essays, major histories, literary criticism or other expository or analytical prose) and the Carclew Fellowship (open to writers for young people in the genres of fiction, drama, poetry or screenwriting). There are no shortlists for these fellowships.

"The prestige and public awareness of the awards continues to grow," says Alexandra Reid, Executive Director, Arts SA. "Not only have the awards attracted entries from around the country, the calibre of short-listed publications reads like a 'who's who' of contemporary Australian literature. Alongside national categories that have attracted established and well known published authors such as J. M. Coetzee and David Malouf, there are also categories which assist emerging South Australian writers to publish new work. And let's not forget the two fellowships which will help two South Australian writers pursue their literary ambition."

For the awards shortlists for 2010 link here.