Kibble and Dobbie Awards

The Kibble Literary Award recognises the work of an established Australian woman writer and provides the winner a $30,000 prize, while the Dobbie Award provides $5,000 and recognises the work of a first published Australian woman writer. Perpetual manages the Awards as trustee for the Estate of the Late Miss Nita May Dobbie.

Date Winners Announced: April 27 2010

Shortlisted: Kibble Literary Award 2010
	Book Title: The Real Possibility of Joy Author/Editor: Josephine Emery ISBN: 9781741966107 Publisher: Pier 9 Description: Josie has lived and loved as a man and as a woman. This is the story of her voyage from his days working in desert mining and construction camps through to the struggles with her family and eventual reconciliation with her dying mother.
Shortlisted: Kibble Literary Award 2010
	Book Title: The China Garden Author/Editor: Kristina Olsson ISBN: 9780702236976 Publisher: UQP Description: When a newborn baby is found abandoned in a backyard, this dramatic event pierces the lives of three very different women. Laura has returned home for her mother's funeral after years in exile, only to discover her upbringing was based on a lie; elderly Cress, the moral compass of the community, conceals her own vices; while young Abby walks the streets, her bruises wrapped in baggy clothes. But it is gentle Kieran, an unlikely guardian, who knows their secrets and watches over them. As their lives collide, what is buried can no longer remain hidden. The China Garden is a captivating story about betrayal and its echoes across generations.
Shortlisted: Kibble Literary Award 2010
	Book Title: The Ghost at the Wedding: a true story Author/Editor: Shirley Walker ISBN: 9780143203292 Publisher: Viking Australia Description: This is the story of young Australian men who went to the battlefields of two world wars. Its perspective focuses on the author's mother-in- law, Jessie, whose brother was killed in World War I. Her sweetheart was seriously wounded, and his two brothers were also killed.
Shortlisted: Dobbie Encouragement Award 2010
	Book Title: Little white slips Author/Editor: Karen Hitchcock ISBN: 9780330424998 Publisher: Picador Australia Description: Whether tackling a troubled marriage using an action figure of Sigmund Freud, celebrating the apparent triumph of weight loss, or coping with the stresses of balancing a career with motherhood, the joys and frustrations of our lives are laid bare.
Shortlisted: Dobbie Encouragement Award 2010
	Book Title: The book of emmett Author/Editor: Deborah Forster ISBN: 9781741667868 Publisher: Vintage Australia Description: Emmett Brown was a charming young man who quoted poetry and read to his wife and young family from the great novels of the world. But he also had a system. Emmett always had in mind that he was going to make a million for the family and continued to pursue his dream of the numbers that would guarantee a win at the races.
Shortlisted: Dobbie Encouragement Award 2010
	Book Title: The nature of ice Author/Editor: Robyn Mundy ISBN: 9781741755763 Publisher: Allen & Unwin Description: Freya has come to Antarctica ostensibly to undertake a photographic expedition to retrace Frank Hurley's iconic photographs - but also to escape a stifling relationship. Once there, though, the extraordinary world of Antarctica gets under her skin and she starts to unfurl, finding her world change in ways previously thought impossible.
Highly Commended: Dobbie Encouragement Award 2010
	Book Title: The Diamond Anchor Author/Editor: Jennifer Mills ISBN: 9780702236952 Publisher: University of Queensland Press Description: Some secrets take a lifetime to tell. An unexpected letter from her childhood friend Grace forces May to relive their extraordinary past and confront the events that drove them apart fifty years earlier.
Highly Commended: Dobbie Encouragement Award 2010
	Book Title: A true history of the hula hoop Author/Editor: Judith Lanigan Publisher: Picador Description: Two stories, which run parallel to each other, follow Catherine, a hula-hooping performance artist and Culumbina, a female clown from the sixteenth century. Showing humour and wonderful insight into a tantalising world, this novel is a swirling journey of two women and their quest for independence. It proves that Judith’s talent lies in telling a story, either on the stage or in her writing. It has inspired me to buy my own hoop and start to twirl. How hard can it be?

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