JOY Burch says local author Gordon Peake’s book “Beloved Land: Stories, Struggles and Secrets from Timor-Leste” has triumphed over a record field of 48 nominations to win both the 2014 ACT Book of the Year Award and the inaugural People’s Choice Award.

The ACT Book of the Year Award recognises quality works by local authors published in the previous calendar year with the aim of supporting the development of ACT based writers and promoting writing in the ACT. The Award winner receives $10,000.

“Congratulations to Dr Peake who has not only won the $10,000 Award but was also chosen as the winner of the inaugural People’s Choice Award,” Joy said.

“The judging panel described Beloved Land as “a compelling work merging the personal with the historical … surprising, sometimes confronting and very poignant”, and the public obviously agreed, with Beloved Land attracting almost 40 per cent of the votes cast.

“This is the first year that the public have been able to vote for their favourite from the shortlisted books and the response has been encouraging.

“I would like to congratulate the other shortlisted authors: Scott Bridges for “18 Days: Al Jazeera English and the Egyptian Revolution”, Clive Hamilton for “Earthmasters: Playing God with the Climate”, Lesley Lebkowicz for “The Petrov Poems” and Lucy Neave for “Who We Were.””

“The ACT Government is proud to continue its support of our writers through the ACT Book of the Year Award. I am pleased to announce nominations for the 2015 Award for books published between 1 January and 31 December 2014 will open on 16 March 2015,” Ms Burch said.

For more information and the full list of previous winners, visit www.arts.act.gov.au.