Victorian Premier's Literary Awards: Winners and Shortlist 2008

The Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction

Winner

• The Spare Room
  Helen Garner (Text Publishing) 

Shortlist

• Diary Of A Bad Year
  JM Coetzee (Text Publishing)
• The Lost Dog
  Michelle de Kretser (Allen & Unwin)
• The Spare Room
  Helen Garner (Text Publishing) 

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The Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-fiction

Winner

• The Ferocious Summer: Palmer’s Penguins and the Warming of Antarctica
  by Meredith Hooper (Allen & Unwin)

Shortlist

• Van Diemen’s Land
  James Boyce (Black Inc)
• Napoleon
  Philip Dwyer (Allen & Unwin)
• The Ferocious Summer: Palmer’s Penguins and the Warming of Antarctica
  Meredith Hooper (Allen & Unwin)
• Detainee 002
  Leigh Sales (Melbourne University Publishing)
• Muck
  Craig Sherborne (Black Inc)

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The Prize for Young Adult Fiction

Winner

• Tomorrow All Will Be Beautiful
  Brigid Lowry (Allen & Unwin)

Shortlist

• Solo
  Alyssa Brugman (Allen & Unwin)
• Pool
  Justin D’Ath (Ford Street Publishing)
• Tomorrow All Will Be Beautiful
  Brigid Lowry (Allen & Unwin)

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The Prize for an Unpublished Manuscript by an Emerging Victorian Writer

Winner

• Going Finish
  Mandy Maroney

Shortlist

• Conditions of Return
  Daniel Ducrou
• Going Finish
  Mandy Maroney
• In Search of the Blue Tiger
  Robert Power

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The C J Dennis Prize for Poetry

Winner

• Press Release
  Lisa Gorton (Giramondo Publishing)

Shortlist

• Event
  Judith Bishop (Salt Publishing)
• Press Release
  Lisa Gorton (Giramondo Publishing)
• As We Draw Ourselves
  Barry Hill (Five Islands Press)

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The Louis Esson Prize for Drama

Winner

• When the Rain Stops Falling
  Andrew Bovell (Brink Productions)

Shortlist

• When the Rain Stops Falling
  Andrew Bovell (Brink Productions)
• The Story of the Miracles at Cookie’s Table
  Wesley Enoch (Currency Press)
• Toy Symphony
  Michael Gow (Belvoir Street Theatre)

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The Alfred Deakin Prize for an Essay Advancing Public Debate

Winner 

• Trapped in the Aboriginal Reality Show

  Marcia Langton
  (Griffith Review)

Shortlist

• Out of Control: The Tragedy of Tasmania’s Forests
  Richard Flanagan (The Monthly)
• Trapped in the Aboriginal Reality Show
  Marcia Langton (Griffith Review)
• Love and Money
  Anne Manne (Quarterly Essay)

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The Prize for a First Book of History

Winner

• The Lamb Enters the Dreaming: Nathanael Pepper and the Ruptured World
  Robert Kenny (Scribe) 

Shortlist

• Van Diemen’s Land
  James Boyce (Black Inc)
• The Lamb Enters the Dreaming: Nathanael Pepper and the Ruptured World
  Robert Kenny (Scribe)
• Pistols! Treason! Murder!
  Jonathan Walker (Melbourne University Publishing)

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The Prize for Indigenous Writing

Winner

• Anonymous Premonition
  Yvette Holt (University of Queensland Press)

Shortlist

• Anonymous Premonition
  Yvette Holt (University of Queensland Press)
• Me, Antman & Fleabag
  Gayle Kennedy (University of Queensland Press)
• Fight for Liberty and Freedom: The Origins of Australian Aboriginal Activism
  John Maynard (Aboriginal Studies Press)

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The John Curtin Prize for Journalism

Winner

• Out of Control: The Tragedy of Tasmania’s Forests
  Richard Flanagan (The Monthly)

Shortlist

• The Search for Edna Lavilla
  Eurydice Aroney and Sharon Davis (Radio Eye, ABC Radio National) 
• Shame Job: Circle of Abuse
  Nick Farrow and Sarah Ferguson (Sunday Program, Nine Network Australia)
• Out of Control: The Tragedy of Tasmania’s Forests
  Richard Flanagan (The Monthly)

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The Prize for Best Music Theatre Script

Winner

• The Wild Blue
  Music, lyrics and book by Anthony Crowley (St Martins Theatre)

Shortlist

• The Hanging of Jean Lee
  Libretto by Jordie Albiston and Abe Pogos, Composed by Andrée Greenwell, Based upon the verse history by Jordie Albiston, (Green Room Music with The Studio, Sydney Opera House)
• The Wild Blue
  Music, lyrics and book by Anthony Crowley (St Martins Theatre)
• Crossing Live
  Words by Matthew Saville, Music by Bryony Marks (Chambermade)

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The Grollo Ruzzene Foundation Prize for Writing about Italians in Australia

Winner

• Head Over Heel
  Chris Harrison (Murdoch Books)

Shortlist

• See Naples and Die
  Penelope Green (Hachette Australia)
• Head Over Heel
  Chris Harrison (Murdoch Books)
• Antonio’s Seed
  Merry Watson (Jeremiah’s Circle Publishing)

Read the judges' report >