What’s happening to my country? Are we actually supporting literature? This week in my state, a new award was announced: the Western Australian Premier’s Australia-Asia Literary Award. It’s for books published by Australian or Asian writers, or largely set in these regions, published in the preceding year, and the especially nice part is it’s worth A$110,000. This makes it one of the richest prizes of its kind – even the Man Booker Prize is only worth a little bit more.
It was only a few months back I mentioned the new Prime Minister’s Literary Prize of $100,000, so I’m getting quite a few warm fuzzies from politicians at the moment. Of course, they do dumb things too – like not funding long-running and vital organisations like FAWWA or stopping funding for important magazines like Westerly … but I’m at least grateful that they’re getting some things right. I’m not naive enough to hope for a perfect world. And on a personal note, I’ve just got to keep writing and daydreaming of one day winning one of these prizes myself. This weekend should see a return to that pesky novel …
