Winning history: 2019 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards

This year marks the 40th year of the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. The 2019 winners were announced on the 29th April 2019.

Deep Time Dreaming: Uncovering Ancient Australia by Billy Griffiths was the Book of the Year and joint winner of the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non‐fiction. In Deep Time Dreaming, Billy Griffiths tells the story of how the historiography of Australia has been changed by linked developments in modern Australian archaeology and the growing awareness of Indigenous Australians ancient and enduring relationship to their land, culture, and dreaming. This sounds like a great Australian history, so will be adding to my reading list. Congratulations to Billy Griffiths.

The other NSW Premier’s Literary Award winners were:

Special Award ($10,000) | No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison by Behrooz Boochani

Christina Stead Prize for Fiction ($40,000) | The Life to Come by Michelle de Kretser

UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing ($5,000) | Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton

Douglas Stewart Prize for Non‐fiction ($40,000) | The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman’s Extraordinary Life in Death, Decay and Disaster by Sarah Krasnostein

Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry ($30,000) | Interval by Judith Bishop

Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children’s Literature ($30,000) | Leave Taking by Lorraine Marwood, Dingo by Claire Saxby and Tannya Harricks

Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature ($30,000) | Amelia Westlake by Erin Gough

Betty Roland Prize for Scriptwriting ($30,000) | Jirga by Benjamin Gilmour

Multicultural NSW Award ($20,000) | The Lebs by Michael Mohammed Ahmad

NSW State Librarian John Vallance said of the 2019 winners they

explore a vast range of ideas, once again, challenge us as readers to expand our thinking and to learn more from the society around us.

Congratulations to these winners and all those involved in delivering the NSW Premier Literary Awards.

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