It’s ABIA time again! And we are very proud to see both The Spare Room and The Lieutenant on the shortlist for Best Literary Fiction Book. Kate Grenville won this category in 2006 for her last novel, The Secret River. Helen Garner has collected a swag of prizes already. The competition is fierce.

Literary Fiction Book of the Year 2009 shortlist:
Breath, Tim Winton
The Boat, Nam Le
The Lieutenant, Kate Grenville
The Slap, Christos Tsiolkas
The Spare Room, Helen Garner

The Spare Room also joins Addition on the shortlist for the International Success Award, which means they have both been published, and critically acclaimed, in a squillion countries.

International Success of the Year 2009 shortlist:
HarperCollins Publishers, for Hammer of God, Karen Miller
Penguin Australia, various Sonya Hartnett titles
Random House Australia, for The Floods, by Colin Thompson
The Text Publishing Company, for The Spare Room, written by Helen Garner
The Text Publishing Company, for Addition, written by Toni Jordan

We look forward to another great night on 23 June—it’s the Logies of the publishing industry, and we wish all our authors the very best of luck.

You can access the full shortlists here.