Literature in Western Australia had the spotlight firmly focused on it when Culture and Arts Minister John Day announced the winners of the Australia-Asia Literary Award and Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards Premier’s Prize.

Mr Day said he was honored to announce the awards, one which celebrated the incredible wealth of talent based in WA, the Premier’s Prize; and one which aimed to capitalise on that talent and position the State within its own region, the Australia-Asia Literary Award.

Read the Minister's statement.

David Malouf won the $110,000 Australia-Asia Literary Award, the richest in the region, for ‘The Complete Stories’.

Antonio Buti’s ‘Sir Ronald Wilson:  A Matter of Conscience’ won the $20,000 Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards Premier’s Prize.

Further information on the awards is available at http://www.dca.wa.gov.au/aala or http://www.slwa.wa.gov.au/pba.html

The shortlisted works for the Australia-Asia Literary Award are:

· The Lost Dog by Michelle de Kretser

· Blood Kin by Ceridwen Dovey

· The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

· Orpheus Lost by Janette Turner Hospital

· The Complete Stories by David Malouf

The shortlisted works for the Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards Premier’s Prize are:

· Sir Ronald Wilson: A Matter of Conscience by Antonio Buti

· The Light River by Hal Colebatch

· The Black Balloon by Elissa Down and Jimmy the Exploder

· Cottesloe: A Town of Distinction by Ruth Marchant James

· Ziba came on a Boat by Liz Lofthouse and Robert Ingpen

· Other Country by Stephen Scourfield

· Love is a UFO by Ken Spillman