1. The Melbourne Prize
The Melbourne Prize for Literature finalists have been announced and amongst those recognised are children and young adult writer’s Alison Lester and Sonya Hartnett. They have both been shortlisted in the company of those who write for adults, another step in recognising writing for the young as equal. Winners will be announced November 7th.
2. State Library of Victoria’s Children Collection
Children’s Research Librarian, Juliet O’Conor, invites the public to use the extensive children’s collection on offer. Steps to do so are available on the SLV website here. SLV holds over 100,000 Australian and overseas children’s books published between the 16th and 21st centuries and is designed for use by researchers and therefore not available for browsing. Definitely a fantastic resource to use should you be researching!
The Brisbane Times has adopted Nick Earls earlier blog stance on the National Year of Reading ambassadorship for their opinion section. Earls’ article is definitely one to check out especially when discussing the role some of his fellow Queensland ambassadors have played in funding cuts for specific literacy programs.
4. Germaine Greer
Greer said quite a number of things while acting as key note speaker of the Brisbane Writers Festival. You can read all of it here. We’ll just draw your attention to her thoughts on schools’ programming at BWF:
“…should not include school children because it was the responsibility of schools to teach literacy.”
We would argue that the point of a schools’ program is to expose students to authors and literature, rather than the mechanics of reading. Also, festivals do not cater to entire schools. Here’s hoping Greer has actually attended a schools’ event to present an informed opinion.
5. Congratulations Neil Grant
Last Tuesday the winners of the Queensland Literary Awards were announced at a presentation held at the State Library of Queensland. Neil Grant, The Ink Bridge, was announced as the recipient of the QAL Young Adult Book award category. Well done to Neil and the team at Allen and Unwin.
6. Hugo Awards
Neil Gaiman is known primarily for his writing for both adults and young people but last year attempted something a little different. Different as in Dr Who – with Grant scripting the epsiode ‘The Doctor’s Wife’ which won the Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation, Shortform. Yay for YA authors spreading their wings!
