Don't the organisers realise that the Ned Kelly Awards have a following? people who would really like to know who won the awards last night.[addenda: winners are marked with ******]
The short list was announced a little over 2 weeks ago (there were no longlists!) and I mentioned it on this blog.
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
So who won?
The Melbourne Writers Festival e-newsletter arrived this morning with nary a mention of a Ned Kelly, even though they supposedly were awarded last night. (Why doesn't that surprise me?)
Appeals in a variety of quarters have gleaned the following:
Chloe Hooper won best true crime with TALL MAN - this originally came through a tweet on Twitter. And the Sydney Morning Herald confirms the John Button Award.
The top award for Best Fiction was jointly shared between Kel Robertson's SMOKE & MIRRORS and Peter Corris' DEEP WATER.
Thanks Canberra Times for that news. Ironically this was passed on by a New Zealand crime fiction blogger: crime watch
Shane Maloney was given the already-announced lifetime award: there's an article by Jason Steger in today's Age confirming that.
When I wrote the above, Best First fiction was an unknown, but I have since learnt it went to GHOSTLINES by Nick Gadd.
BTW, Crime Writers Association of Australia, I don't want to be picky, but it would be nice if the page that contains the shortlist, wasn't actually titled "Ned Kelly Award Entries for 2008.
4 comments:
I agree Kerrie that information about the awards has been handled very badly this year. In this day and age I'd expect a media release to have been prepared and sent simultaneously to the awards being announced. Frankly I'd also have expected the CWAA or MWF to have organised someone to tweet from the awards ceremony (you can't tell me there wasn't a 3G phone or netbook in the place). Surely 99% of the point of awards like these is to publicise the books and authors that the awards celebrate and these days there is an expectation of immediacy.
I agree - but we need to be a little cautious, because the Ned Kelly organisers may have in fact sent out press releases, but the mainstream media outlets merely haven't done anything with them (having worked for some media, I know many press releases are ignored or filed for publication later).
Of course, that doesn't stop them from updating their own website today....
Fair points Kerrie. That said, I'm very appreciative of the Ned Kelly folk choosing my book. I've written a brief account of the awards night on my blog for those who are interested.
Thanks for dropping in Nick, and hearty congratulations on your win. I guess my point, perhaps poorly made, is that the organisers seem to me to have really handled the whole publicity thing rather badly this year. Still the news is out now, which is the most important thing.
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