2020 Chief Minister’s NT Book Awards
The NTWC is calling for submissions for the 2020 Chief Minister’s NT Book Awards. The awards are open to authors living in the NT who have had a book published in 2018 or 2019.
Since 2009, the awards have celebrated excellence amongst published authors residing in the NT. They draw national attention to NT writers and in the past have served to raise the profile of remote, regional and Indigenous voices. The awards take place biennially and this year, thanks to the generosity of Chief Minister Michael Gunner, we are again pleased to open three categories.
Submissions are sought for the following awards:
Best Fiction Book
For a work of fiction in any form or genre (prose or poetry) by an NT resident.
Best Non-Fiction Book
For a prose work other than fiction. Includes biography, auto-biography, creative non-fiction, history, philosophy and literary criticism by an NT resident.
Best Young Adult or Children’s Book
For a published book in either genre by an NT resident. In the case of picture books, prize money will be split between the author and the illustrator.
The total prize money in 2020 is $6000.
Submissions open December 2019
Entries must be received by 5pm on Monday, 3 February, 2020.
A shortlist will be announced in April 2020.
The awards ceremony will be held as part of the NT Writers’ Festival in Darwin, 14-17 May, 2020. (exact date TBC)
The judges are:
Nadine Davidoff: Nadine Davidoff is a freelance book editor and writing/editing teacher with extensive trade publishing experience. She has worked as a Senior Editor at Random House and a Commissioning Editor at Black Inc.
Mark O’Flynn: Mark O’Flynn has published six collections of poetry, most recently The Soup’s Song (Picaro, 2015), and Shared Breath (Hope St. Press 2017). His novels include Grassdogs (2006), The Forgotten World (2013), and The Last Days of Ava Langdon (UQP, 2016) which was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award and the Prime Minister’s Award for fiction, as well as winning the Voss Literary Award, 2017. A second collection of short stories, Dental Tourism, will be published by Puncher and Wattmann in 2020.
Entry Conditions
- All entries must have been first published between 01 Jan 2018 and 31 Dec 2019.
- All authors must either be current residents of, or have been born in the Northern Territory.
- Entry fee is $50 per book entered. Free for current NTWC members. Payment can be made on our website.
- Two copies of the book must be mailed to the NT Writers’ Centre’s Darwin office – GPO Box 2255, Darwin NT 0801. If an eBook is available please include details.
- We unfortunately don’t accept anthologies, unless it’s a short story collection by one author only.
- To be eligible, self-published works must be publicly available for commercial sale.
- Categories will be awarded at judge’s discretion. If insufficient entries are received, judges may elect not to award a category.
- Copyright is retained by the author of the work.
*Entry fee is $50 per book entered. Free for current NTWC members.
