PM's Literature Awards shortlist announced

The ANU are rather pleased (and quite rightly) that a book written by one of their professors about Australian sex lives has made the PMLA shortlist this year.

Associate Professor Frank Bongiorno’s book The Sex Lives of Australians: A History has been shortlisted for a 2013 Prime Minister’s Literary Award.

Dr Bongiorno’s book has been described by a critic as a ‘work of real significance that makes a fresh contribution to understanding our culture’ and ‘a case study of how to convey complexity and scholarly debate without sacrificing readability.’

It certainly makes an interesting contribution to Australian history, as it is about cross-dressing colonists, effeminate bushrangers and women-shortage woes.

Dr Bongiorno’s book is one of five books to make the shortlist for the award’s history category

Despite the title and subject easily lending themselves to jokes (and google-bait headlines) the work itself sounds rather interesting.

The full (short) list is here:

Fiction shortlist
Floundering by Romy Ash
The Chemistry of Tears by Peter Carey
Questions of Travel by Michelle de Kretser
Lost Voices by Christopher Koch
Mateship with Birds by Carrie Tiffany

Poetry shortlist
Burning Rice by Eileen Chong
The Sunlit Zone by Lisa Jacobson
Jam Tree Gully: Poems by John Kinsella
Liquid Nitrogen by Jennifer Maiden
Crimson Crop by Peter Rose

Non-fiction shortlist
Bradman’s War by Malcolm Knox
Uncommon Soldier by Chris Masters
Plein Airs and Graces by Adrian Mitchell
The Australian Moment by George Megalogenis
Bold Palates by Barbara Santich

Prize for Australian history shortlist
The Sex Lives of Australians: A History by Frank Bongiorno
Sandakan by Paul Ham
Gough Whitlam by Jenny Hocking
Farewell, dear people by Ross McMullin
The Censor’s Library by Nicole Moore

Young adult fiction shortlist
Everything Left Unsaid by Jessica Davidson
The Children of the King by Sonya Hartnett
Grace Beside Me by Sue McPherson
Fog a Dox by Bruce Pascoe
Friday Brown by Vikki Wakefield

Children’s fiction shortlist
Red by Libby Gleeson
Today We Have No Plans by Jane Godwin and illustrated by Anna Walker
What’s the Matter, Aunty May? by Peter Friend and illustrated by Andrew Joyner
The Beginner’s Guide to Revenge by Marianne Musgrove