The Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing is going from strength to strength. We received over 300 entries to this year’s prize and after several weeks of reading and many discussions we have chosen a shortlist of five contenders for the 2011 prize. The judges were very impressed with the high standard of submissions and competition was particularly fierce. Congratulations to each of the shortlisted authors!

The 2011 shortlisted titles are:

• The Relic, Myke Bartlett

• The Accident, Kate Hendrick

• Wild Card, Sophie Masson

• Sparrow, Damian Morgan

• The Brothers of Turoc, Rebecca Timmis

The winner will be announced at the Australian Booksellers' Association Conference in Melbourne on Monday July 25, and on the Text website later that day. The winning book will be published by Text in mid-2012.