The Western Australian Premier's Book Awards is an annual book award provided by the
Government of Western Australia, and managed by the
State Library of Western Australia
The State Library of Western Australia is a research, education, reference and public lending library located in the Perth Cultural Centre in Perth, Western Australia. It is a portfolio agency of the Western Australia Department of Culture and t ...
.
History and format
Annual literary awards were inaugurated by the Western Australian Government in 1982 to honour and celebrate the literary achievements of Western Australian writers. Until 1990 the Western Australian Premier's Book Awards were called the WA Week Literary Awards. The title of the award refers to the year of publication, rather than the year in which the awards were announced e.g.the 2011 awards for works published that year were announced in 2012
The categories included poetry, non-fiction, fiction, Western Australian history, children's book, YA fiction, scripts and digital narrative. There was also a Premier's Prize, which was awarded to an overall winner.
The
Barnett
Barnett is both a surname and a masculine given name. Notable people with the name include:
Surname
Barnett is an Anglo-Saxon and Old French surname that came after the Norman Invasion.The original Anglo-Saxon spelling is baernet which means'the ...
government downgraded the awards from an annual event to a biennial one much to the disappointment of the WA arts sector.
The
McGowan
McGowan is an Irish and Scottish surname. It is an Anglicization of the Irish Mac Gabhann and Scottish surname ''Mac Gobhann''. Belonging to the Uí Echach Cobo, located in modern-day County Down in the east of Ulster, they produced several ...
government reinstated the annual award format in 2018. Currently there are four categories – the Western Australian Writer's Fellowship (valued at $60,000), the Premier's Prize for Writing for Children ($15,000), the Premier's Prize for an Emerging Writer ($15,000) and the Daisy Utemorrah Award for Indigenous Authors ($15,000 and publishing contract with
Magabala Books).
There have been calls for the awards to be restored to their previous levels as there are currently no categories for established poets, nor fiction and non-fiction writers.
Honorees
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
References
External links
*
{{Portal, Children and Young Adult Literature
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Australian literary awards
Australian non-fiction book awards
Western Australian literature
Australian history awards