Scribe attended The Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards on the lawns of Parliament House last week, presented by The Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas. It was a fantastic evening, hosted by comedian Denise Scott and attended by Victoria’s Minister for Creative Industries Martin Foley, and Catherine Andrews – representing Premier of Victoria Daniel Andrews.
First cab off the rank was the People’s Choice, which was awarded to Scribe author Miles Allinson for his book Fever of Animals. Miles had previously won the Victorian Premier's Unpublished Manuscript Award in 2014 for this book, and it was wonderful to see his intimate portrait of a man's search for an obscure Romanian painter whilst reflecting on a broken relationship be recognised again by the public and his peers. Miles was humbled by the award and the perhaps slightly-too-loud whooping and cheering from the Scribe crew.
In the other categories, The Award for Fiction went to Mireille Juchau for her third novel, The World Without Us. Gerald Murnane’s memoir Something for the Pain took out the Prize for Non-fiction, and Mary Anne Butler’s play Broken won the Prize for Drama. Alan Loney’s Crankhandle received the Prize for Poetry, and Marlee Jane Ward won the Prize for Writing for Young Adults for Welcome to Orphancorp.
The ultimate prize though, presented by Minister Foley, was the $100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature which was awarded to Mary Anne Butler for Broken. Her heartfelt acceptance speech wrapped up a fantastic award ceremony that celebrated writing and creative pursuits.
For more details, The Wheeler Centre has a great recap of the proceedings on their website here.
