Tim Winton's 'Dirt Music' takes Premier's Book Award

24/5/02
Premier Geoff Gallop announced Tim Winton as the recipient of the $20,000 Premier's Prize for his novel Dirt Music at the annual Western Australian Premier's Book Awards tonight.
Dr Gallop said Dirt Music was written in a vigorous style that captured the WA lingo to perfection and was detailed in its observations of life.
Tim Winton also won the $5,000 Fiction category prize with Dirt Music.
Other category prize recipients for the 2001 Premier's Book Awards were:

• Non-Fiction (two awards of $5,000 each):
  John Bailey, The White Divers of Broome
  Jan Gothard, Blue China: Single Female Migration to Colonial Australia.
  
• Poetry ($5,000):
  Dorothy Hewett, Halfway Up the Mountain.
  
• Children's Books ($5,000)
  Deborah Lisson, The Yankee Whaler.
  
• Perth Independent Newspapers Young Adults Award ($5,000)
  Julia Lawrinson, Obsession.
  
• Script ($5,000)
  Sally Riley and Archie Weller, Confessions of a Headhunter.

Dr Gallop said there were 96 entries for this year's awards.
"It is pleasing to have such a strong field of nominations," he said.
"This is the Year of the Outback and 27 of the works short-listed reflected this theme, including several of the winning entries."
The Premier also used the occasion to announce that the Government will increase the prize pool of next year's book awards (the 2002 Premier's Book Awards) by $17,500 - taking the total prize money to $72,500.
Dr Gallop said the prize money for each category would increase from $5,000 to $7,500 while the Premier's prize would remain at $20,000.
"The community places great value on writers and their work and this funding increase will assist them to continue their work," he said.
The awards were inaugurated by the Western Australian Government in 1982 to honour and celebrate the literary achievements of WA writers.
Premier's office: 9222 9475