Australian Literary Awards 2008 - who will the PM choose?

Art's Minister Peter Garrett has announced the shortlist for what must be Australia's biggest literary prize.

There were 91 entries in the fiction prize, and 103 non-fiction entries.

The seven short-listed fiction books include works in prose, a compilation of short stories and one work in verse. Among the short list are writers whose distinguished careers have spanned decades as well as debut authors whose careers are just beginning.

• Burning In Mireille Juchau (Giramondo)
• El Dorado Dorothy Porter (Picador)
• Jamaica Malcolm Knox (Allen and Unwin)
• Sorry Gail Jones (Vintage)
• The Complete Stories David Malouf (Knopf)
• The Widow and Her Hero Tom Keneally (Doubleday)
  
• The Zookeeper's War Steven Conte (Fourth Estate)

Non-fiction

• A History of Queensland Raymond Evans (Cambridge University Press)
• Cultural Amnesia: Notes in the Margin of My Time Clive James (Picador)
• My Life as a Traitor Zarah Ghahramani with Robert Hillman (Scribe)
• Napoleon: The Path to Power, 1769–1799 Philip Dwyer (Bloomsbury)
• Ochre and Rust: Artefacts and Encounters on Australian Frontiers Philip Jones (Wakefield Press)
• Shakespeare's Wife Germaine Greer (Bloomsbury)
• Vietnam: The Australian War Paul Ham (HarperCollins)
  

From the Age:

AUTHOR Dorothy Porter admits she gets rather nervous when she considers that her latest book is on Kevin Rudd's reading list.

And it's not just that Mr Rudd gets the final say on who wins the Prime Minister's Literary Awards, which — with two tax-free prizes of $100,000 each on offer — represent the most lucrative literary award in the country.