Well for the ‘bookish’ our version of the oscars is now over for another year. The gala dinner for the Australian Book Industry Awards was held in Sydney on friday night as part of the Sydney Writer’s Festival, giving some insiders a fine excuse for not attending the Stella Women Writer’s Prize launch lunch at Circular Quay on friday (more on that in my next blog).  The word is with this new writing prize actively seeking pledges so it can commence next year, some heads have been noticably lowered. This years ABIAs nominees had the usual suspects but there was no showing from writers of rural literature. 

But for now here are some of the ABIA winners.

Book of the Year: Anna Funder – All That I Am

General Non-fiction award: William McInnes & Sarah Watt – Worse Things Happen At Sea

General fiction Award: Kate Grenville – Sarah Thornhill

Independent Bookseller Award: Shearer’s Bookshop

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott spoke about the importance of books in his life and in Australian culture. His appearence was notable considering the current Minister for Arts is apparently hard to pin down for anything bookish. Hmmmm….