Australian Independent Booksellers are pleased to announce the Shortlist for The Indie Book Awards 2016. Independent booksellers of Australia, affectionately termed ‘indies’, have a proud reputation for choosing the best in Australian writing, with many of the shortlisted books in previous years going on to be bestsellers and win other major literary awards. The latest reports for the Christmas 2015 period reveal an increase in both volume and value of books sold in the Australian market, proving that the print book and bookshops are well and truly alive and thriving.
With a new category added this year in response to bookseller feedback, the twenty shortlisted books will be vying for the top spot as the Indie ‘Book of the Year’ for 2016. Panels of expert judges (all indie booksellers and avid readers) choose the winners from five book categories – Fiction, Debut Fiction, Non-Fiction, Children’s and Young Adult. Independent booksellers from around the country will then vote to select their favourite book for the year. The category winners and the overall ‘Book of the Year’ winner will be announced on Wednesday 23 March, 2016 in Sydney.
The Indie Book Awards are now considered the forerunners of all major Australian book awards. Since its inception in 2008, the Indie Book Awards have chosen Breath by Tim Winton, The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do, Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey, All That I Am by Anna Funder, The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman, The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan and The Bush by Don Watson as previous overall winners.
The Shortlist for The Indie Book Awards 2016 is:
FICTION SHORTLIST A Guide to Berlin by Gail Jones (Random House Australia) The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood (Allen & Unwin) The Other Side of the World by Stephanie Bishop (Hachette Australia) The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks (Hachette Australia)
NON-FICTION SHORTLIST Flesh Wounds by Richard Glover (ABC Books, HarperCollins Australia) One Life by Kate Grenville (Text Publishing) Reckoning: A Memoir by Magda Szubanski (Text Publishing) The Anti-Cool Girl by Rosie Waterland (HarperCollins Australia)
DEBUT FICTION SHORTLIST Relativity by Antonia Hayes (Penguin Australia) Rush Oh! by Shirley Barrett (Pan Macmillan Australia) Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar (Pan Macmillan Australia) The Anchoress by Robyn Cadwallader (HarperCollins Australia)
CHILDREN’S SHORTLIST Olive of Groves by Katrina Nannestad & Lucia Masciullo, Illus (ABC Books, HarperCollins Australia) The 65-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths & Terry Denton, Illus (Pan Macmillan Australia) The Bad Guys, Episode 1 by Aaron Blabey (Scholastic Australia) The Singing Bones by Shaun Tan (Allen & Unwin)
YOUNG ADULT SHORTLIST Cloudwish by Fiona Wood (Macmillan Australia) Prince of Afghanistan by Louis Nowra (Allen & Unwin) Ranger’s Apprentice: The Early Years 1: The Tournament at Gorlan by John Flanagan (Random House Australia) Soon by Morris Gleitzman (Penguin Australia)
The Indie Book Awards category winners and the Book of the Year 2016 will be announced at an event in the Sydney CBD on Wednesday 23 March.
We would like to gratefully acknowledge and thank the official Category Sponsors of the Indie Book Awards 2016 campaign:
Allen & Unwin – sponsoring the Fiction Award
NewSouth Books – sponsoring the Non-Fiction Award
Hachette Australia – sponsoring the Debut Fiction Award
HarperCollins Children’s Books Australia – sponsoring the Children’s Award
Hardie Grant Egmont – sponsoring the Young Adult Award
And also thank our Awards Partners:
Macmillan Australia
Simon & Schuster Australia
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