Nominations: Ned Kelly Awards 2009
Best first fiction
GHOSTLINES, Nick Gadd**
CROOKED, Camilla Nelson
THE BUILD UP, Phillip Gwynne*
Best Fiction
BRIGHT AIR, Barry Maitland
DEEP WATER, Peter Corris
SMOKE & MIRRORS, Kel Robertson
Best True crime
THE KILLING OF CAROLINE BYRNE, Robert Wainwrights
THE TALL MAN, Chloe Hooper
A QUESTION OF POWER, Michelle Schwarz
The SD Harvey Short Story
Fidget's Farewell, Scott McDermott
Farewell My Lovelies, Chris Womersley
Fern's Farwell, Bronwyn Mehan
Farewell to the shade, Cheryl Rogers
And I have so far read only one of them, although I have one* marked down to read and another** on my shelves somewhere.
At the moment I must say I'm pretty underwhelmed by the list, particularly when I think of some of the books that could have been listed such as THE IRON HEART, Marshall Browne; THE WHITE TIGER, Aravind Atiga; MURDER ON A MIDSUMMER NIGHT, Kerry Greenwood; DISCO FOR THE DEPARTED, Colin Cotterill; FAN MAIL, PD Martin; THE DARKEST HOUR, Katherine Howell; HARUM SCARUM, Felicity Young; and VOODOO DOLL, Leah Giarratano.
I'm puzzled too about why a "long list" was not issued as has been done in previous years.
The winners will be announced at Melbourne Writers' Festival at the end of this month, on Friday 28 August.
Kerrie - Sheesh, from your list I only recognized two authors! So now I have many more to add to my TBR list. I have Maitland's first book on hold at my library.
ReplyDeleteI finished "The Girl Who Played With Fire" and thoroughly enjoyed it. I also enjoyed your review. Can't wait for the third one.
I agree it's a funny looking list indeed Kerrie with a lot of good books missing. Nothing on the website actually says what criteria are so without the longlist it's a bit worthless. And why wait so long to announce the shortlist...the MWF is next weekend for heaven's sake. They haven't allowed time for people to read the ones they've missed and generate a bit of discussion (that's always one of the fun things about awards like the Booker). If they want to get taken seriously they have to be a bit better organised IMHO.
ReplyDeleteSomething tells me all may not be wqell with this award Bernadette. I had to hunt in the programme for the date and time when it was being handed out. No prominent advertising!
ReplyDeleteI like the long lists too - they sort of give you a reading curriculum.