Entries for this year’s Prime Minister’s Literary Awards close on Wednesday, 1 February. Minister for the Arts, the Hon. Simon Crean, is pleased with the number of entries received so far and says that the judging panels are already underway with their reviewing process.

This year’s awards include a prize for poetry for the first time. Mr Crean commented that ‘from bush ballad to hip hop, poetry is ingrained in the cultural life of our nation and our great poets deserve to be recognised alongside our best authors and historians’. (Media release, 25 January 2012)

Award categories now cover adult fiction, non-fiction, Australian history, poetry, young adult fiction and children’s fiction. A total of $600,000 will be awarded across the six categories.

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