I’m quite obsessed with news about awards for writers. I guess partly that’s because I hope that one day (in the far distant future …) I might actually win one, and partly because I’m always intrigued to see how much our society values writers – or should I say, how little many parts of our society value writers, especially compared to actors or musicians. But that’s a rant for another day.

I just heard about a terrible awards night when the wrong writer was announced as the winner. It was at the Wales Book of the Year ceremony last week and the local Culture Minister got mixed up somehow and announced one of the runners-up as the winner; as he was just about to reach the stage to get his prize, they had to announce that it was a mistake, and someone else was in fact the winner.

As I read this story, I imagined it happening to me, and how heartbreaking it would be! Nobody expects to be the winner, but you would quickly adjust to the excitement of being the winner if you heard your name called. (Suddenly being 9,000 pounds poorer wouldn’t be pleasant either – the difference between the winner’s prize money and the runners-up’ prize). As the author himself said – this would never happen at the Oscars – how true, and that’s what I mean about where writers fit in the whole scheme of things. But don’t worry, I’m not going to switch to acting all of a sudden.

Since I’ve started paying attention to the awards available to writers – particularly Australian novelists, because it’s good to have dreams of what I could achieve one day! – I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see that some very good writers are getting decent amounts of money to reward their achievements in creating great literature. Of course, I’m aware that most great writers don’t earn anywhere near as much as they should, but I’d somehow thought that the situation was absolutely dire and nobody got anything. But if you check my posts on awards, there are a few writers – even Australians! – who are getting a decent bonus now and again.

So here’s another one: over in Sydney they announced the New South Wales Premier’s literary awards this week, including $40,000 for the Christina Stead prize for fiction. The winner of this, Michelle de Kretser, got another $10,000 for winning Book of the Year too, with another book that’s had to be added to my long reading wish list, The Lost Dog. What’s more, the minister responsible announced that prize money for all the NSW literary awards is being doubled. There should be more of it – but I’m glad there’s an upward trend, at least.

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 …

I think it’s just lovely when I read newspaper articles about writers who’ve won awards with prize money that’s actually worth something. Writers seem to draw the short straw so often – as do many creative arts – because people do it because they’re passionate, and not for the financial reward. Yet a financial reward, and the freedom to live without being scared of the next bill coming in, while creating incredible books and stories and poetry that can change the world, is pretty important. Right?

Okay, my rant’s over now. I was just pleased because I read a story about a mail-sorting poet in New Zealand who won NZ$65,000 for his book of poems called Abandoned Novel. (Hmm, I have a real abandoned novel, wonder if I can get anything for that?!). David Beach is called the mail-sorting poet because he’s worked for many years both for Australia Post and New Zealand post, sorting mail – I guess that’s the kind of work that leaves your brain free for daydreaming and poem composing. In any case, I loved this quote from him:

That a book of poems can win a $65,000 prize makes me feel as if I’ve stumbled into a parallel universe where poetry is considered important.

And while he’s talking about the problem of poetry often being overlooked in favour of novels or short stories, I still want to be in his parallel universe, where all writing is considered important. All arts, for that matter. In this parallel universe, people would tell me “you’re working hard at home writing today” instead of “you’ve got the day off”. But I did say my rant was over.

Not long ago I mentioned that nice new Australian prize, worth $100,000, known as the Prime Minister’s Literary Prize. And while that would certainly help a good Aussie writer to survive a couple of years longer without having to take another job, I was pretty excited to hear that an Australian author has just picked up a prize worth $880,000. That’s serious money!

Melbourne-based young adult writer Sonya Hartnett just won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award from the Swedish government.

She’s not a writer I’m familiar with – yet! – but according to a bio, she actually had her first book published when she was just 15 years old. That does give her around 25 years of professional experience, and probably a lot of years in which she earned a mere fraction of $880,000. But it does give aspiring Aussie writers a bit of hope – well, that’s how I feel, anyway.