PRIME MINISTER'S LITERARY AWARDS
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Announced this week were The Prime Minister's Literary Awards and the formation of a new Book Council of Australia to promote Australian writing nationally and internationally and encourage and promote reading. The category award winners were: Fiction: A World of Other People, Steven Carroll and The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Richard Flanagan; Poetry: Drag Down to Unlock or Place an Emergency Call, Melinda Smith; Non-Fiction: Moving Among Strangers, Gabrielle Carey and Madeleine: A Life of Madeleine St John, Helen Trinca; Prize for Australian History: Broken Nation: Australians in the Great War, Joan Beaumont and Australia's Secret War: How unionists sabotaged our troops in World War II, Hal G.P. Colebatch; Young Adult Fiction: The Incredible Here and Now, Felicity Castagna; Children's Fiction: Silver Buttons, Bob Graham.
MEET THE AUTHOR
December 15: The Shaun Micallef ANU/Canberra Times meet-the-author event is sold out, capping what organiser Colin Steele says has been a record year of attendances with such Australian and international speakers as Amy Tan, Bob Carr, Gareth Evans, Betty Churcher, Paul Kelly, Annabel Crabb, Hugh Mackay, Geraldine Doogue and Peter FitzSimons. We can look forward to an interesting new line-up in 2015.
I CHING
December 16: Professor John Minford's translation of the I Ching has been published. Minford is a translator and Chinese scholar who has devoted many years to the study of this Chinese classic. It will be launched by Professor Nicholas Jose at Asia Bookroom, Unit 2, 1-3 Lawry Place, Macquarie ACT at 6pm. RSVP: by December 15 by phoning 6251 5191. Admission by gold coin donation to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.
SECRETS OF THE ANZACS
December 18: Raden Dunbar, author of The Secrets of the Anzacs: The Untold Story of Venereal Disease in the Australian Army, 1914-1919, will be speaking at Paperchain Manuka at 6pm. During World War I, about 60,000 soldiers in the Australian army were treated by army doctors in Egypt, Europe, and Australia for venereal diseases - almost the same number of diggers who were killed during the war. RSVP telephone 6295 6723 or email info@paperchainboiokstore.com.au.
JULIA GILLARD
December 23: Former prime minister Julia Gillard will be signing copies of her book My Story at Paperchain Bookstore Manuka from 2pm to 4pm. The book tells her account of her three years and three days as Australia's first female prime minister. RSVP: telephone 6295 6723 or email info@paperchainbookstore.com.au.
FAMILY HISTORY
January 15: If you are interested in researching and writing your family history, you can discover the National Library of Australia's family history resources and collection guides in a free event in the library's Ferguson Room from 2pm to 3pm. This session includes a tour of the Newspapers and Microforms collections. Bookings: nla.gov.au.
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