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Aboriginal author takes home Queensland Premier's award

By Amy McQuire

Carpenteria by Alexis Wright photo courtesy Giramondo

12 September 2007 - Aboriginal author Alexis Wright may have to invest in a new award cabinet soon.

Not only did she win Australia's most prestigious literary prize - the Miles Franklin award - earlier this year, but last night she was also announced as the winner of the Queensland Premier's Literary Fiction Book prize for her sweeping novel, Carpentaria.

Add to that the Victorian Premier's Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction earlier this month and you can imagine the dilemma Ms Wright may now face finding space on her mantle place.

And that's only this year.

Her previous novel Plains of Promise published in 1997, picked up a NSW Premier's Award, The Age Book of the Year award and was shortlisted for a Commonwealth Prize.

But Ms Wright yesterday said it was "particularly special" to win a Queensland award.

"It is a great honour for me to receive the Premier's Literary Award for fiction for Carpentaria," Ms Wright said.

"I am really pleased as I am a Queenslander and this is a book about Queensland so it makes this Queensland award particularly special to me."

Ms Wright's 500-page novel has not only struck a chord with judging panels, but has also attracted excellent reviews around the nation.

The Sydney Morning Herald called it an "unashamedly big book - big in scope, ambition and physic size - and well suited to the Gulf country it sings". The Age labelled it "a book of imagination".

The Queensland Premier's Literary Awards is considered a leading program of its kind throughout Australia and allocates prizes in 14 award categories ranging from non-fiction writing to the prestigious David Uniapon Award for an unpublished Indigenous author.

Elizabeth Eileen Hodgson won this year's David Uniapon award for her collection of poetry, Skin Paintings, which explores themes of art, identity, sexuality, separation and loneliness.

Queensland Premier Peter Beattie, who on Monday announced his retirement, congratulated all 14 of the recipients last night, stating that the winners provided an important reflection on Australian culture.

"This is a platform of national significance, with prizes of between $25,000 and $15,000 recognising good writing and helping aspiring authors get onto our bookshelves, TV and film screens," Mr Beattie said.

"My congratulations to go all of the finalists because your stories are an important reflection of our culture, our history and our Australian identity today."

Source: National Indigenous Times

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