SHORTLIST IN JOHN BUTTON PRIZE ANNOUNCED — 22.07.2010
2010 Shortlist (in alphabetical order)
Paul Kelly, March of Patriots
Noel Pearson, Radical Hope
Peter Sutton, The Politics of Suffering
Laura Tingle, Tensions escalate over Rudd’s kitchen cabinet
Writing on Indigenous politics and society has for the second year running dominated the shortlist of the John Button Prize for writing on politics and public policy, announced today.
Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson’s Quarterly Essay, Radical Hope, and anthropologist Peter Sutton’s book, The Politics of Suffering, are among the four works shortlisted for the Prize, which awards $20,000 to the best piece of writing on politics and public policy in Australia in the previous year.
The others are the book, March of Patriots, by Paul Kelly of The Australian newspaper, and the article, Tensions escalate over Rudd’s kitchen cabinet, by Laura Tingle of The Australian Financial Review.
Last year’s shortlist for the inaugural Prize featured three works on Indigenous subjects and was won by Chloe Hooper for her book on the death of Palm Islander Cameron Doomadgee.
The winner of the Prize, created in memory of former Australian Industry minister and writer John Button, will be announced at the Melbourne Writers Festival on September 3.
Chairman of the judging panel, Morag Fraser, said it was no surprise that Indigenous subjects featured so strongly as they represented “the great unresolved issue of Australian society.”
One of the judges, 7.30 Report presenter Kerry O'Brien, said it was no surprise that Indigenous subjects featured so strongly as they represented “the single most intractable policy problem Australia faces.”
For the second year in a row, judges noted the absence of high-quality writing on climate change.
The six-person judging panel included former NSW Premier Bob Carr and Nobel Prize-winning novelist John Coetzee.
For more information contact: Morag Fraser 0404 034 054 or James Button (John Button Foundation) 0447 380 812