The Age reports today on Anh Do’s awards win at last night’s Australian Booksellers' Association awards night. The report notes Do was named newcomer of the year, his memoir The Happiest Refugee (for which a Russell Crowe-backed movie has been mooted) was the industry’s book of the year. Do shared the biography of the year gong with Paul Kelly’s How to Make Gravy.
The ABA has two awards for novels, dividing them in idiosyncratic fashion between ‘literary fiction’ and ‘general fiction’. Chris Womersley’s Miles Franklin-shortlisted novel Bereft won the literary novel of the year award while with Kate Morton’s The Distant Hour won the general fiction award.
The Lloyd O'Neil award for outstanding service to the industry was won by pioneering food writer Margaret Fulton. Publishers Allen & Unwin and Scribe won the publisher of the year and small publisher of the year awards respectively.