CALLING FOR ENTRIES - Applications close 13 September 2010
The search is on again for the best book written by a Northern Territory author over the past year. This time, entries are restricted to books published between 30 September 2009 and 31 August 2010. Eligible writers are those currently living in the Northern Territory, with anthologies being ineligible.
This year's winner, Marie Munkara, has been featured at festivals in Sydney, Melbourne and Bali as well as at WordStorm in Darwin, where audiences voted her the most popular guest writer - in a year that featured Germaine Greer! Marie has also enjoyed extensive media attention at national and international levels as a result of her win.
The winner of the Angus & Robertson Children's and Young Adult category, Leonie Norrington, has likewise enjoyed a year of promotion.
In 2011, a new category will be added to the Territory Read NT Book of the Year Award as Absolutely Books joins us in celebrating NT literature. The new category will be non-fiction, including the genres of memoir, biography/autobiography, history, family history and creative non-fiction.
NT residents are invited to submit books published between 30 September 2009 and 31 August 2010 for consideration in Territory Read. Due to the specific aims of the initiative, anthologies are ineligible.
Submissions should include four copies of the book and an application form available from Sandra at the NT Writers' Centre: 08 8941 2651 or
WINNER OF THE 2010 NT BOOK OF THE YEAR ANNOUNCED!
The winner of the 2010 Territory Read NT Book of the Year is Marie Munkara’s Every Secret Thing.
Munkara takes home prize money totalling $5,000 courtesy of the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory. Gerry McCarthy MLA awarded the prize to Marie at a ceremony at Parliament House on Friday 12th February.
The panel of judges this year included novelist and Professor of Writing, Gail Jones. ‘Like Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria, this is a landmark text in indigenous writing. It is a work of immense spirit, ingenuity and narrative confidence,’ said Jones says of Every Secret Thing.
‘Set on a mission in the Northern Territory, Every Secret Thing examines with wise and witty irreverence the collision of Catholic and indigenous cultures, figured here as a drama of comic misunderstandings between the Mission Mob and the Bush Mob.
‘There is a beautiful humanity to both the characters and the tale and all is encompassed in brilliant humour, canny observations and a splendidly clever social vision.
‘Particularly impressive is the way in which the political intelligence of the novel – regarding important matters like cultural depredation, stolen generations and sexual abuse – are told not in the mode of elegy but through an understanding of spiritual and cultural resistance. It is a robust and audacious critique of white incursion, but also a celebration of the solidarity, joy, community and vigour that persists with spiritual integrity in Aboriginal communities.
In the clash of culture and faith, sometimes humour is the only refuge. When culture and faith collide . . . nothing is sacred. In the Aboriginal missions of far northern Australia, it was a battle between saving souls and saving traditional culture. Every Secret Thing is a rough, tough, hilarious portrayal of the Bush Mob and the Mission Mob, and the hapless clergy trying to convert them. In these tales, everyone is fair game. At once playful and sharp, Marie Munkara’s wonderfully original stories cast a taunting new light on the mission
Of Rembarranga descent, Marie Munkara was born on the banks of the MainoruRiver in Arnhem Land. She now lives in Darwin. Every Secret thing is her first book and was the winner of The 2009 David Unaipon Award.
Listen to ABC Radio National's program Awaye! online:
This program features Marie Munkara, Roy Kennedy (winner of the 2009 NSW Aboriginal Art Prize), and Wesley Enoch, who is a guest at this year's WordStorm Festival.
Watch ABC's Stateline feature on Territory Read here.
This year, the NT Writers’ Centre is also delighted to introduce the Angus and Robertson Award for writers ofchildren and young adult fiction. In the Territory we have many fine writers in these genres and we wanted to reward these writers for their excellent work. It is hard to compare children’s genres to adult genres. Angus and Robertson were keen to encourage writing for younger readers and so kindly offered the award.
‘I don’t think people in our community know how many great published writers we have in the Territory,’said Anna Priore of Angus and Robertson. ‘These authors are living amongst us and we should be taking advantage of the opportunity to learn from them. I think this award is a really good way to make people aware of the amazing talent we have here.’
The winner of the 2010 Angus and Robertson Award is The Devil You Know, by Leonie Norrington. ‘It is one of the most important young adult fiction books that has been written in the last few years,’ said Writers’ Centre Executive Officer, Sandra Thibodeaux, of the winning book. ‘Domestic violence is one of the hidden tragedies of contemporary Australian culture. The Devil You Know gives voice to those young people who are affected.’
88 is angry. Damien can feel it prickling the air between them. Every muscle in his body is taut, ready to run, planning his escape over the fire between those chairs and straight down to the creek. But he can’t run. Not yet.
Damien is horrified when his father, a violent man known to his motorcycling peers as 88, moves back to live with him and his mum. Memories of past violence are too strong. But there’s also glamour in having a father who rides a Harley Davidson. Set in a small-town community in northern Australia, The Devil You Know takes you inside the mind and under the skin of a troubled boy with a vivid imagination and one who must wrestle with his own violent impulses and minor betrayals.
Leonie Norrington was born in Darwin and spent most of her childhood on a remote Aboriginal community. Her books include the Barrumbi series and have been shortlisted for the CBCA Book Awards 2003 and the 2008 Territory Read NT book of the year award.
The judges this year were Gail Jones (Sixty Lights, Dreams of Speaking, Sorry), Steve Grimwade (Director of the Melbourne Writers Festival), Yvette Holt (University of Queensland lecturer and poet), Mark McLeod (acclaimed publisher of children’s literature) and Sandra Thibodeaux (poet, playwright and the Executive Officer of the NT Writers Centre).
Last year’s winner, Andrew McMillan, enjoyed an unprecedented year of national and international promotion that came about as a result of the award. Highlights included: sold-out appearances at the Sydney Writers' Festival, appearances at the other major literary festivals (Brisbane, Melbourne and Ubud), interviews on Radio National and 3RRR, a feature on Stateline (NT) and a column mention in The Weekend Australian, with an overall benefit of increased book sales for his winning title An Intruder’s Guide to East Arnhem Land. Meanwhile, the other short-listed writers, Nick Bland, Jo Dutton, Barry Jonsberg, Alec Kruger/Gerard Waterford and Leonie Norrington also enjoyed extensive promotion through bookshop displays, events and media campaigns.
Territory Read is an initiative of the Northern Territory Writers’ Centre supported by Arts NT.
Territory Read NT Book of the Year celebrates the finest in contemporary Northern Territory literature. The following six books were short listed for the award this year:
Cassie by Barry Jonsberg (Allen and Unwin) Every Secret Thing by Marie Munkara (UQP) Listen Deeply, let these stories in by Kathleen Kemarre Wallace and Judy Lovell (IAD Press) My Private Pectus by Shane Thamm (Ford St Publishing) The Devil you Know by Leonie Norrington (Allen and Unwin) The Red Highway by Nicolas Rothwell (Black Inc Books)
Cassie
Barry Jonsberg
(Allen & Unwin, 2008)
I’m Holly Holley and I’m short, I’m ugly and I’m overweight.
Holly Holley has an embarrassing name and terrible life. And, as if all that isn’t enough, now her household is being turned upside down by the arrival of her aunt and a cousin who has severe cerebral palsy, and is confined to a wheelchair. Cassie is a story about friendship, loyalty and self-image, and also explores issues including disability and honesty.
Barry Jonsberg has been shortlisted for the 2005 Children’s Book Council Awards. His book It’s not all about YOU, Calma won the 2006 South Australian Festival Award for Children’s Literature. Dreamrider was shortlisted for the 2007 NSW Premier’s Award. The Dog that Dumped on my Doona was shortlisted for the 2008 Territory Read Book of the Year Award.
To all the people I would say: “Come, listen to us, we will tell you our culture. Learn from us. That way we will all survive.”
Renowned Eastern Arrernte painter, Kathleen Kemarre Wallace, tells stories of her elders and their way of life that she learnt as a child and young woman. Her storytelling illuminates the origins and beliefs of Eastern Arrernte people, and calls for respect for the ancient traditions of the altyerre spirits who brought her country into being. Kathleen’s knowledge of country, law and culture shine through in her words and mesmerising painting.
I hope you listen deeply and let these stories in. They are for all time, for the old days, to help remember the old people, but also for the future and for young people now.
Kathleen Wallace was raised by family in the bush at Uyetye, and trained from an early age in the stories of her culture and country. Kathleen is one of only a few surviving community members who have these stories and skills. Her connection to her country and to her law and culture has remained strong.
There’s something different about my body. It’s not something I’m proud of either, not something I show anyone. It’s like the missing piece of a jigsaw you can’t take your eyes off. If I were to take off my shirt you’d just suck your cheeks in and stare. All you’d see is the depression in the middle of my chest.
My Private Pectus is a serious yet comical portrayal of teenager Jack McDermott’s struggle to discover who is, what he’s meant to look like, and how much he should care about what other people think. Jack’s chest deformity, pectus excavatum, is symbolic of the body image issues teenage boys face in schools today.
After six years working in high school outdoor education, and the masculinised outdoor adventure industry, Shane Thamm became intimately interested in what makes young men tick, and the emotional challenges they negotiate each day, often in silence. His first novel, My Private Pectus, gives these boys a voice.
This is the story of a quest - a journey down the red highway. After a spell reporting the Iraq War, Nicolas Rothwell returns to Australia, to explore the deserts and towns, sleepy coastline and hidden worlds of the north. As he travels, his journey gathers momentum and finds a shape. He has unforgettable, even mystical encounters: with a nun, an explorer, a collector and a hunter. It becomes a quest - for knowledge and a sense of home - that builds to a stunning culmination. The Red Highway offers a fresh vision of Australia, its deserts and ancient past, art and people. It explores death, friendship, travel and art, and evokes a unique and mesmerising part of the country.
Nicolas Rothwell is the award-winning author of Wings of the Kite-Hawk, Journeys to the Interior, The Red Highway and Another Country. He is the northern correspondent for The Australian.
Buy from these bookstores in the NT: Absolutely Books Shop 6/ 48 Marina Blv Larrakeyah NT 0820 ph: (08) 8941 1363 Angus & Robertson 18 The Galleria Darwin NT 0800 ph:(08) 8941 3489 Charles Darwin University Bookshop Red Building 1.1-05 Central Place CDU Ellengowan Drive Casuarina (08) 894666497 Dymocks Shop 34, Alice Plaza, Todd Mall Alice Springs NT 0870 ph: (08) 8952 9111 Book City Yeperenye Centre Alice Springs NT 0871 ph: (08) 8953 4588
