Hands Up!
The longlists for this year's Ned Kelly Awards have been announced. This annual award, inaugurated in 1995, celebrates crimewriting, both fiction and non-fiction, as well as recognising titans of the genre by means of its Lifetime Achievement award.
In addition to that award, prizes are awarded in four categories:
- Best First Fiction
- Best Fiction
- Best True Crime
- The S.D. Harvey Short Story (for which the longlist is yet to be announced).
Melanie Joosten's novel Berlin Syndrome, which won the 2012 Kathleen Mitchell Award, is on the longlist for Best First Fiction. Barrister and former Media Watch presenter Stuart Littlemore QC is in contention for two awards - Best First Fiction and Best Fiction - for his book Harry Curry: Counsel of Choice.
The Best Fiction longlist features the usual suspects - Peter Corris, Garry Disher (2010 winner for Wyatt) and Kerry Greenwood. Colleen McCullough shows she's made a successful transition to crime fiction by making the Best Fiction longlist with The Prodigal Son.
Peter Corris pops up again in the Best True Crime longlist with Mad Dog, alongside Mark ‘Chopper’ Read (Road To Nowhere) and another broadcaster cum writer Michael Duffy with Call Me Cruel.
Previous winners up to 2010 are listed here. The 2011 winners are listed on the home page.