The winners of the 2020 Queensland Literary Awards have been announced.
The announcement took place during an online event hosted by the State Library of Queensland on Friday, 4 September.
The most valuable prize, the Queensland Premier’s Award for a Work of State Significance, worth $25,000, went to Joe Gorman for his book, Heartland: How rugby league explains Queensland.
‘It’s probably not that often you see a book about sport, and particularly a book about rugby league, winning such an award. So that makes me really happy and really proud,’ Gorman told the ABC while discussing his award.
‘What I’m trying to do with this book is to say it’s more than just a sport, it’s more than just a game, it speaks to Queensland society and culture as well.’
‘Queensland is not the centre of the conversation, and when it is it’s often the butt of the joke,’ Gorman explained.
‘I think that’s one of the reasons why State of Origin has had such an enduring appeal – both because Queenslanders can beat their southern rivals but also because it’s a statement of affirmation about being a Queenslander.’
The award categories spanned fiction, nonfiction, children’s, YA, and Indigenous writing. The People’s Choice Award for 2020 was awarded to A Lifetime of Impossible Days by Tabitha Bird.
Check out the full list of winners below!
- Queensland Premier’s Award for a Work of State Significance:
- Heartland: How rugby league explains Queensland by Joe Gorman
- Fiction Book Award
- Stone Sky Gold Mountain Mirandi Riwoe
- Nonfiction Book Award
- Olive Cotton: A life in photography by Helen Ennis
- Children’s Book Awards
- As Fast As I Can by Penny Tangey
- Young Adult Book Award
- Ghost Bird by Lisa Fuller
- Steele Rudd Award for a Short Story Collection
- Lucky Ticket by Joey Bui
- David Unaipon Award for an Emerging Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Writer
- The Space Between the Paperbark by Jazz Money
- Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer
- If You’re Happy by Fiona Robertson
- Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Award
- Zenobia Frost
- Yen-Rong Wong
- People’s Choice Book of the Year Award
- A Lifetime of Impossible Days by Tabitha Bird
