ACT Writers (formerly the ACT Writers’ Centre) presented two years of its ACT Notable Awards marking published books over the past years —2020 and 2021 — during which presentation ceremonies have been curtailed.

Awards were given in most literary genres and the one play, Dylan Van Den Berg’s “Milk”, was shoehorned into the fiction category. The presentations, at Canberra Contemporary Art Space on Lake Burley Griffin yesterday, (July 29), culminated in the announcement of the 2020 and 2021 Special Book Awards, selected across all categories and designed to recognise “work that demonstrates uniqueness, literary excellence and surpasses genre”.

Craig Cormick and Harold Ludwick’s “On a Barbarous Coast” (Allen and Unwin) won the Special Book Award for 2020 and Omar Musa’s “Killernova” (Penguin Books Australia) won Special Book Award 2021.

In the named awards, the Anne Edgeworth Fellowship went jointly to Julia Faragher and Samantha Tidy, while the June Shenfield Award for poetry went to Rosa O’Kane, with Victorian poets Andrew Spiker and Claire Miranda Roberts as runners-up.

The full list of ACT Notable Awards is as follows:

FICTION 2020 – SMALL PRESS

• WINNER, TR Napper, “Neon Leviathan” (Grimdark Magazine)
• Highly commended, Alison Booth, “The Philosopher’s Daughters” (RedDoor Press, UK)

FICTION 2020 – BIG PRESS

• WINNER, Felicity Volk, “Desire Lines” (Hachette Australia)

FICTION 2021 – SMALL PRESS

• WINNER, Jenny Bond, “Everything I Am” (The Hard Word)
• Highly commended, Kate Liston-Mills, “Dear Ibis” (Spineless Wonders)

FICTION 2021 – BIG PRESS

• WINNER Dylan van den Berg, Milk (The Street Theatre/Currency Press)
• Highly Commended Irma Gold, The Breaking (MidnightSun Publishing)

NON-FICTION 2020 – SMALL PRESS

• WINNER Ian W. Shaw, “Pandemic: The Spanish Flu in Australia 1918-1920” (Woodslane Press)

NONFICTION 2020 – BIG PRESS

• WINNER, David Dufty, “Radio Girl: The Story of the Extraordinary Mrs Mac, Pioneering Engineer and Wartime Legend” (Allen & Unwin)

NONFICTION 2021 – SMALL PRESS

• WINNER, Dianne Lucas, “Coolamon Girl” (Ginninderra Press)

NONFICTION 2021 – BIG PRESS

• WINNER Danielle Celermajer, “Summertime” (Penguin Books Australia)

POETRY 2020 – SMALL PRESS

• WINNER, Penelope Layland, “Nigh” (Recent Work Press)
• Highly commended, PS Cottier, “Utterly” (Ginninderra Press)

POETRY 2020 – BIG PRESS N/A

POETRY 2021 – SMALL PRESS

• WINNER, Sandra Renew, “It’s the Sugar, Sugar” (Recent Work Press)
• Highly commended, Sarah Rice, “Text/ure” (Recent Work Press)
• Highly commended, Sarah St Vincent Welch, “Chalk Borders” (Flying Island Books)

POETRY 2021 – BIG PRESS

• WINNER, Lizz Murphy, “The Wear of My Face” (Spinifex Press)

CHILDREN’S 2020 – SMALL PRESS

• WINNER, Krys Saclier and Cathy Wilcox, “Vote for Me” (Wild Dog)
• Highly commended, Karen Hendriks and Kim Fleming, “Feathers” (Empowering Resources)
• Highly commended, Amy Laurens, “A fox of storms & starlight” (Inkprint Press)

CHILDREN’S 2020 – BIG PRESS

• WINNER, Gina Newton and Rachel Tribout, “Hold On: Saving the Spotted Handfish” (CSIRO)
• Highly commended, Stephanie Owen Reeder and Tania McCartney, “Australia’s Wild Weird Wonderful Weather” (NLA Publishing)
• Highly commended Stephanie Owen Reeder, “Will the Wonderkid” (NLA Publishing)

CHILDREN’S 2021 – SMALL PRESS

• WINNER, Irma Gold and Susannah Crispe, “Where the Heart Is” (Exisle Publishing)
• Highly commended, Catherine Meatheringham and Deb Hudson, “All Dogs Bark” (Windy Hollow Books)

CHILDREN’S 2021 – BIG PRESS

• WINNER, Charles Massy and Mandy Foot, “The Last Dragon” (NLA Publishing)
• Highly commended, Larry Brandy, “Wiradjuri Country” (NLA Publishing)

SPECIAL BOOK AWARD 2020

• WINNER, Craig Cormick and Harold Ludwick, “On a Barbarous Coast” (Allen and Unwin)

SPECIAL BOOK AWARD 2021

• WINNER, Omar Musa, “Killernova” (Penguin Books Australia)