Michelle de Kretser wins Aussie PM Literary Award

Monday, 19 August 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

MELBOURNE (Bernama): Sri Lankan-born novelist Michelle de Kretser has won the 2013 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for fiction. De Kretser’s ‘Questions of Travel’ picked up the prize in Brisbane on Thursday, from a shortlist of five books that included Peter Carey’s ‘The Chemistry of Tears’. It is the second award this year for Sydney-based de Kretser, after her book won the Miles Franklin Literary award in June. The novel centres on two characters, with two stories, each describing a different journey. The double narrative explores questions of home and away, travel and tourism, refugees and migrants, as well as “questions of travel” in the virtual world, charting the rapid changes in electronic communications. Libby Gleeson won the award for children’s fiction for her novel ‘Red’, while journalist George Megalogenis picked up the prize for non-fiction for ‘The Australian Moment’. All winners take home an $80,000 tax-free prize.