And the Winners are… The Australian Book Industry Awards 2017!

We were at the biggest night of the year in the Australian book industry last night. It’s like the Academy Awards for books, with all the shortlisted authors arriving on the gold carpet in anticipation of the results. Among the stellar cast of presenters were international guests Pulitzer Prize winner 2017 Colson Whitehead and Man Booker 2016 winner Paul Beatty, in town for the Sydney Writers’ Festival.

Di Morrissey received a lifetime achievement from another Australian literary legend, Tom Keneally. It was a great night with Jane Harper, winner of the overall book of the year, declaring it ‘the most exciting night of my life.’

The winners are:

Overall Book of the Year:

The Dry by Jane Harper (Pan macmillan Australia)

General Fiction Book of the Year:

The Dry by Jane Harper (Pan macmillan Australia)

General Non-Fiction Book of the Year:

The Road to Ruin: How Tony Abbott and Peta Credlin destroyed their own Government, Niki Savva, (Scribe Publications)

Illustrated Book of the Year:

Penguin Bloom , Cameron Bloom & Bradley Trevor Greive, (ABC Books, HarperCollins Publishers)

Literary Fiction Book of the Year:

Penguin Bloom , Cameron Bloom & Bradley Trevor Greive, (ABC Books, HarperCollins Publishers)

Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year:

Fight Like a Girl , Clementine Ford, (Allen & Unwin, Allen & Unwin)

Biography Book of the Year:

Working Class Boy by Jimmy Barnes (HarperCollins Publishers)

International Book of the Year:

Commonwealth , Ann Patchett, (Bloomsbury Publishing, Bloomsbury)

Book of the Year for Younger Children (age range 0 to 8 years):

The 78 Storey Treehouse , Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton, (Pan Australia, Pan Macmillan Australia)

Book of the Year Older Children (age range 8 to 14 years):

The Bone Sparrow, Zana Fraillon, (Lothian, Hachette Australia)

Audio Book of the Year:

The 78-Storey Treehouse, Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton, Narrator Stig Wemyss (Bolinda audio, Bolinda Publishing)