The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2009

For immediate release, Wednesday 18 February 2009

The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2009

Regional shortlists announced

Aravind Adiga makes it a double with nominations for Best Book and Best First Book in South East Asia and the Pacific.
www.commonwealthfoundation.com/cwp

Organised by the Commonwealth Foundation with the support of the Macquarie Group Foundation

The shortlists for the 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book and Best First Book from South East Asia and the South Pacific were announced today, 18 February 2009.

Aravind Adiga who has been nominated for both Best Book and Best First Book joins leading Australian writers Helen Garner and Tim Winton in the line-up for the £10,000 prize.
The full shortlists are:
Best Book Award
Aravind Adiga Between the Assassinations Picador India Australia
Helen Garner The Spare Room Text Publishing Australia
Joan London The Good Parents Vintage Australia
Paula Morris Forbidden Cities Penguin New Zealand
Christos Tsiolkas The Slap Allen & Unwin Australia
Tim Winton Breath Hamish Hamilton Australia

Best First Book Award
Aravind Adiga The White Tiger Atlantic Books Australia
Nam Le The Boat Hamish Hamilton Australia
Mo Zhi Hong The Year of the Shanghai Shark Penguin NZ
Bridget Van der Zijpp Misconduct Victoria University Press NZ
Preeta Samarasan Evening is the Whole Day Fourth Estate Malaysia
Ashley Sievwright The Shallow End Clouds of Magellan Australia

The judging panel for the South East Asia and the South Pacific region was chaired by Dr Anne Brewster (Australia). She was joined by judges Dr Lydia Wevers (New Zealand) and Dr Boey Kim Cheng (Australia).

Dr Brewster commented:
‘The unusually high number of entries from acclaimed and well-established writers in this year’s Best Book category is reflected in the outstanding shortlist which includes Helen Garner, Joan London, Tim Winton, Christos Tsiolkas and the Man Booker award-winning author Aravind Adiga. Alongside these names is an impressive collection of short stories by Paula Morris (Ngati Wai). Adiga, in a year of abundance, is also shortlisted in the Best First Book. The judges are pleased to note several new authors from Asia in this year’s entries in the First Book category, two of whom are shortlisted.’
The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, a much valued and sought-after award, aims to reward the best Commonwealth fiction written in English, by both established and new writers, and to take their works to a global audience.

The two regional winners from South East Asia and the South Pacific that emerge from the shortlists will be announced on 11 March 2009. These two winners will then enter the final phase of the competition and go on to compete head to head with the other six finalists from Africa, Canada and the Caribbean and Europe and South Asia for the overall Best Book and Best First Book award.

The two overall winners, chosen by an international panel of six judges coming together in New Zealand, will be announced on 16 May at the Auckland Writers’ and Readers Festival (AWRF).

Each of the regional winners will receive £1,000 and in addition be invited to take part in a week-long series of community events and public readings alongside the final judging in New Zealand, culminating in the announcement of the two overall winners for Best First Book and Best Book.

The overall Best Book winner will receive £10,000 and the overall Best First Book winner will receive £5,000.

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