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Premier's Literary Awards Shortlist Announced

The works shortlisted for the 2009 Premier's Literary Awards have been announced by the Hon. Lynne Kosky, the Arts Minister, at the State Library of Victoria.

There are 11 categories of shortlisted works, including journalism, poetry, fiction, science writing, drama and musical theatre.

'Melbourne and Victoria are home to a wonderful culture of writing, publishing and reading,' said Ms Kosky. 'This year's shortlist features both established and emerging writers across all categories and I'm very proud to say that half of the shortlisted writers are Victorian.'

The shortlist for the Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction, which is for a published novel or collection of short stories, is The Pages by Murray Bail (Text Publishing), Dog Boy by Eva Hornung (Text Publishing), The Boat by Nam Le (Penguin), The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas (Allen & Unwin) and Breath by Tim Winton (Penguin).

The judges of the Vance Palmer Prize - Peter Mews, Antoni Jach and Jane Sullivan - commented that they were 'particularly attracted to novels that exhibited originality, energy and a distinctive voice'.

Other works shortlisted for awards include:

• The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island by Chloe Hooper (Hamish Hamilton)
• The Henson Case by David Marr (Text Publishing)
• A Week in Kinglake, Michael Vincent's bushfire reports for ABC Radio.

Read more about the 2009 Premier's Literary Awards shortlist >

The winners of the Premier's Literary Awards will be announced by the Hon. John Brumby, Premier of Victoria, at an awards dinner on Tuesday 1 September. Alexis wright will be guest speaker and Eddie Perfect will MC the event.

Find out how to make a booking for the awards dinner >