The longlist for the Australia-Asia Literary Award was announced on 17 October by Western Australia Culture and Arts Minister John Day. This new prize, inaugurated last year by former WA Premier Alan Carpenter, is the richest literary award in Australia and Asia valued at AUD $110,000. On the longlist of twelve books is Diary of a Bad Year, by J.M. Coetzee. First published by Text last year, this ground-breaking work of fiction has also been shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Awards and the SA Festival Awards for Literature. It is now available in a new paperback edition.

The winner of the Australia-Asia Award and the Western Australian Premier’s Book Award will be announced at an awards ceremony in Perth on 21 November.