The Short List for the 2014 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards for Young adult fiction has been announced:

The Incredible Here and Now by Felicity Castagna (Giramondo Publishing Company)
Pureheart by Cassandra Golds (Penguin Group)
Girl Defective by Simmone Howell (Pan Macmillan)
Life in Outer Space by Melissa Keiil (Hardie Grant Egmont)
The First Third by Will Kostakis (Penguin Group)

This is the final issue of Viewpoint: on books for young adults. After 22 years we are calling it a day. Thanks go to our writers, the publishers and subscribers.

Viewpoint: On Books for Young Adults is about to change. After 22 years, the journal will cease publication at The University of Melbourne at the end of this year, with Volume 22, Issue 4. We are in negotiations to move the Journal to a new home and will have information about the location and arrangements for continuing subscriptions shortly.
Please do not re-subscribe for 2015 until further notice.
Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to a new beginning in 2015.

The Children’ Book Council of Australia has announced the 2014 Shortlist for the Book of the Year: Older Readers, and the list can be found in the current journal. Congratulations to David Burton, winner of the Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing. His book, How to be Happy will be published in 2015. Watch out for the third book in Andrew McGahan’s Ship Kings series, entitled The War of the Four Isles, coming soon.

The preliminary program for the Children’s Book Council of Australia Conference, Discovering National Treasures, 16th to the 18th May, 2014 in Canberra is now available. Major Australian writers and illustrators are in attendance, such as Barry Jonsberg, Michael Gerard Bauer, Libby Gleeson, Margaret Wild, Glenda Millard, Freya Blackwood and Julie Vivas.

Congratulations to Archimede Fusillo who has been awarded a Fellowship from the Italian Services Institute. This is in recognition of his writing on Italian migrants in particular, and enables him to travel to Italy. Archie’s new book, The Dead Dog in the Still of the Night (Ford Street) is scheduled for publication early this year.

This year we lost some major contributors to books for young adults: Margaret Dunkle, Jan Ormerod, Maureen Stewart, Gregory Rogers and Roger Vaughan Carr. We deeply regret their passing.

During 2013 there have been a number of re-issues of past masterpieces by Australian writers, including Tim Winton’s Lockie Leonard series, Ivan Southall’s Hills End and Ash Road, Nan Chauncy’s They Found a Cave, Patricia Wrightson’s I Own the Racecourse! and Joan Phipson’s The Watcher in the Garden. It is satisfying that books such as these, that have marked turning points in our literature, have been brought forward to inspire today’s readers.

We congratulate Bruce Pascoe for Fog a Dox (Magabala Books) which was the Young Adult Fiction Winner, and Libby Gleeson for Red (Allen & Unwin) which was the Children’s Fiction winner of the 2013 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards.

The longlist for the Centre for Youth Literature, State Library of Victoria’s Inky Awards, has been announced.

The Gold Inkys are:

Fire in the Sea by Mike Bartlett
Girl Defective by Simone Howell
My Life as an Alphabet by Barry Jonsberg
Cry Blue Murder by Kim Kane and Marion Roberts
Life in Outer Space by Melissa Keil
The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina
A Confusion of Princes by Garth Nix
City by James Roy
Friday Brown by Vicki Wakefield
Wildlife by Fiona Wood

The Silver Inkys are:

The Diviners by Libba Bray
See You at Harry’s by Jo Knowles
Hostage Three by Nick Lake
Every Day by David Levithan
The Originals by Cat Patrick
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
This is not a Test by Courtney Summers
Drama by Raima Telgemeier
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey