Premier's Literary Awards Announced

Congratulations to Melbourne writer and journalist, Helen Garner, whose latest novel, The Spare Room was awarded the Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction in the 2008 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards.

The complete list of winners:

• The Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction
  The Spare Room by Helen Garner (Text Publishing)
  

• The Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-fiction
  The Ferocious Summer: Palmer’s Penguins and the Warming of Antarctica by Meredith Hooper, (Allen & Unwin)
  

• The CJ Dennis Prize for Poetry
  Press Release by Lisa Gorton (Giramondo Publishing)
  

• The Louis Esson Prize for Drama
  When the Rain Stops Falling by Andrew Bovell (Brink Productions)
  

• The Prize for Young Adult Fiction
  Tomorrow All Will Be Beautiful by Brigid Lowry (Allen & Unwin)
  

• The Prize for a First Book of History
  The Lamb Enters the Dreaming: Nathanael Pepper and the Ruptured World by Robert Kenny (Scribe)
  

• The Alfred Deakin Prize for an Essay Advancing Public Debate
  Trapped in the Aboriginal Reality Show by Marcia Langton (Griffith Review)
  

• The Prize for Indigenous Writing
  Anonymous Premonition by Yvette Holt (University of Queensland Press)
  

• The Prize for the Best Music Theatre Script
  *The Wild Blue by Anthony Crowley (St. Martins Theatre)
  

• The Prize for an Unpublished Manuscript by an Emerging Victorian Writer
  "Going Finish" by Mandy Maroney (Read Mandy's comments on winning the award in the October Victorian Writer.
  

• The Grollo Ruzzene Foundation Prize for Writing about Italians in Australia
  Head Over Heel by Chris Harrison (Murdoch Books)
  

• The John Curtin Prize for Journalism
  Out of Control: The Tragedy of Tasmania’s Forests by Richard Flanagan (The Monthly)
  

JUDGES OF THE 2008 VICTORIAN PREMIER’S LITERARY AWARDS

The Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction
Lyn Gallacher (convenor), Joel Becker and Peter Mews

The Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-fiction
Judith Armstrong (convenor), Stephen Armstrong, Peter Cochrane, Mary Dalmau, and Jenny Lee

The Prize for Young Adult Fiction
Anna Ryan-Punch (convenor), Simmone Howell and Kirsty Murray

The CJ Dennis Prize for Poetry
Jennifer Strauss (convenor), Claire Gaskin and Peter Rose

The Louis Esson Prize for Drama
Ailsa Piper (convenor), Mary Lou Jelbart and Wendy Lasica

The Alfred Deakin Prize for an Essay Advancing Public Debate
Peter Browne (convenor), Sarah L’Estrange and Terry Lane

The John Curtin Prize for Journalism
Michael Gawenda (convenor), Greg Hywood and Richard Watts

The Prize for a First Book of History
Tony Birch (convenor), Helen MacDonald and Alistair Thomson

The Prize for Indigenous Writing
Philip Morrissey (convenor), Jane Harrison and Bruce Sims

The Prize for the Best Musical Theatre Script
Guy Noble (convenor), Robyn Archer and Robert Dessaix

The Prize for an Unpublished Manuscript by an Emerging Victorian Writer
Kevin Brophy (convenor), Liam Davison and Louise Swinn

The Grollo Ruzzene Foundation Prize for Writing about Italians in Australia
Robert Pascoe (convenor), Piero Genovesi and Adriana Nelli

— 01.09.2008