QUT Creative Writing and Literary Studies staff and students past and present dominate the shortlist of 2015 Queensland Literary Awards with works that confront Australia's colonial past, young people's coming of age, and the lives and experiences of Indigenous Australians.
Dr Glen Thomas, Head of Creative Writing and Literary Studies in the QUT Creative Industries Faculty said there was a strong QUT connection to 10 of the writers in the running for categories including the Queensland Premier's Award for a Work of State Significance.
"University writing courses like those offered at QUT are re-shaping the ways that Queenslanders understand themselves, their state and their country. The shortlisted works from our staff and alumni are testament to the breadth, depth, and professionalism of the Creative Writing program," said Dr Thomas.
"QUT graduate Ellen van Neerven is up for the Queensland Premier's Award for a Work of State Significance as well as the Steel Rudd Award for an Australian Short Story Collection with Heat and Light, short stories inspired by Indigenous experience which won the 2013 Unpublished Indigenous Writer/David Unaipon Award.
"Lecturer Rohan Wilson is shortlisted in the UQ Fiction Book Award Category for his book To Name Those Lost which won the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, Fiction Prize, 2015, and has also just been shortlisted for the Tasmania Book prize. A multi-award-winning author and academic originally from Tasmania we were lucky to have Rohan join us a QUT earlier this year.
"Another of QUT's writing lecturers - Kari Gislason - is in the running for The Courier-Mail People's Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award for his novel, The Ash Burner, while sessional academic Sam George-Allen is one of five vying for the Queensland Premier's Young Publishers and Writers Awards. She's up against two former QUT students: Michelle Law and Rebecca Jessen."
Dr Thomas said the stunning representation of writers with a QUT link in the awards reinforced how QUT is setting the benchmark high for the role that universities play in the development and ongoing nurturing of literary life in Australia.
"QUT is leading the way in fostering new writing talent and preparing students for success in the real world by providing them with world-class study options and access to esteemed authors," he said.
"I congratulate all those shortlisted and wish them the best for 9 October when the winners are announced. They are up against some tough competition and it's a great professional honour for them but it is also an excellent testimony to the quality of QUT's creative writing program."
Rohan Wilson joined QUT as a lecturer at the beginning of the year with degrees and diplomas from the universities of Tasmania, Southern Queensland and Melbourne, and has nothing but praise for his new academic home.
"The course structure in Creative Writing and Literary Studies at QUT promotes excellence of exactly the kind we see in the shortlisted graduates," Dr Wilson said.
"It's no coincidence that we have both teachers and graduates and postgraduates on these lists. That's end result of the amazing work being done in the discipline at QUT."
The full list of past and present QUT staff and students shortlisted in the 2015 Queensland Literary Awards follows:
•Ellen van Neerven - Queensland Premier's Award for a Work of State Significance and the Steel Rudd Award
•Rohan Wilson - UQ Fiction Book Award
•Kari Gislason - Courier Mail People's Choice Award
•Michelle Law - Queensland Premier's Young Publishers and Writers Awards
•Rebecca Jessen - Queensland Premier's Young Publishers and Writers Awards
•Sam George-Allen - Queensland Premier's Young Publishers and Writers Awards
•Patrick Holland - Courier Mail People's Choice Award
•Inga Simpson - Courier Mail People's Choice Award
•Imogen Smith - Emerging Queensland Writer Manuscript Award
•Kathy George - Emerging Queensland Writer Manuscript Award
Media contact:
Amanda Weaver, QUT Media, 07 3138 9449, amanda.weaver@qut.edu.au
After hours: Rose Trapnell, 0407 585 901, media@qut.edu.au
