MEDIA RELEASE: 2023 Roderick Literary Award Shortlist Announced

Thursday 17th August 2023

The shortlist for one of Australia’s oldest and most prestigious literary awards has been announced by the Foundation for Australian Literary Studies, based at James Cook University.

Emeritus Professor Alan Lawson, Chair of the Judging Panel commented that:

“We’ve had to hose quite a bit of blood off the walls and consoled ourselves with the fact that this was the biggest, most diverse, and best set of Roderick entries ever.  We simply had more good and very good books this year than any of us can remember.  Hence, we have a Shortlist of 7.”

The shortlisted titles are:

• Meg Bignell — The Angry Women's Choir [Michael Joseph Australia]
• Robert Drewe — Nimblefoot [Hamish Hamilton Australia]
• Pip Harry — August & Jones [Hachette Australia]
• Sarah Holland-Batt — The Jaguar [University of Queensland Press]
• Chloe Hooper — Bedtime Story [Simon & Schuster Australia]
• Brett Mason — Wizards of Oz [NewSouth Publishing]
• Hayley Scrivenor — Dirt Town [Pan Macmillan Australia]

“It was a close call even for places on the slightly longer shortlist” said Lawson.

The Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award was founded in 1967 and recognises the best original book, in the judges' opinion, that was published in Australia in the previous calendar year for the first time. Submissions must deal with any aspect of Australian life and can be in any field or genre of writing, verse or prose.

It is valued at $30,000 and is presented by the Foundation for Australian Literary Studies. It is also coupled with the silver H.T. Priestley Memorial Medal. The Foundation is based at James Cook University and is funded through the generosity of the late Professor Colin Roderick CBE, his late wife Mrs Margaret Roderick, as well as donations and membership from the general public.

Last year’s winner was Emily Bitto for Wild Abandon [Allen & Unwin].

The winner of the 2023 Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award will be announced in Townsville in October.

Judges’ had the follow to say about each of the shortlisted works:

Meg Bignell — The Angry Women's Choir [Michael Joseph Australia]

With some cynicism and with humour, The Angry Women’s Choir looks long and hard at feminism and the patriarchy in the 2020s. The women are angry, and their anger produces not just beautiful music but a national movement of reform. All the women who make up the choir have fascinating stories – a good read with a strong message.

Robert Drewe — Nimblefoot [Hamish Hamilton Australia]

What happened next? is the basis for this fascinating tale of Johnny Day, a little boy from Ballarat. At ten he became the World Champion in pedestrianism, the sporting craze of the day. A few years later he won the Melbourne Cup on a horse called Nimblefoot and then he disappeared. Drewe reimagines what his life could have been, in a great yarn.

Pip Harry — August & Jones [Hachette Australia]

Aimed at the tween/teenage market, this book addresses some heartbreaking problems in an engaging way. Jones moves to the city from the country at eleven years old and befriends August. Together they face their problems with courage and humour – Jones has cancer, August has family problems but they make a bucket list of adventures and embark on them. Not just for kids, this is a great read.

Sarah Holland-Batt — The Jaguar [University of Queensland Press]

A powerfully-coherent collection of strong, sometimes searing, sometimes intimate, poems written around the death of her father. The rhetorical, poetic, metaphoric language almost overwhelms as she attempts to use every tool at her disposal to come to terms with her grief.

Chloe Hooper — Bedtime Story [Simon & Schuster Australia]

This lyrical volume explores the possibility of a perfect story to convey and soften the hardest things.  It’s a memoir, a family celebration, an odyssey through the terrors of illness and death; a salutation to the power and promises of storytelling. Tracing her partner’s illness while searching for the perfect way to tell and protect her small sons, the writer highlights the joy of reading, and uncovers the transience and endurance of family life. Beautifully written, effectively and surprisingly illustrated, it is a storybook for dark and light times.

Brett Mason — Wizards of Oz [NewSouth Publishing]

Largely ignored by historians, two Adelaide men, Howard Florey and Mark Oliphant, played significant roles in the victory in WWII. Florey discovered how to create penicillin in large enough quantities to be useful; Oliphant developed microwave radar and persuaded the US to build the atom bomb. It’s detailed but fast moving and you can’t put it down.

Hayley Scrivenor — Dirt Town [Pan Macmillan Australia]

An outstanding first novel about a disappearance in a small country town; a detective novel that manages to focus on the community, friends, families as well as the detective from the prelude, the day of disappearance, the search, and its aftermaths from many points-of-view. Detailed and finely-written Australian rural noir.