Victorian-based writers have made a clean sweep of spots in the two adult-fiction shortlists for Indie Book Awards, which were announced on Monday.
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The awards, which are presented by Australia's independent booksellers to the best books published last year, come in six categories: fiction; non-fiction; debut fiction; illustrated non-fiction; children's, and young-adult. Victorian writers occupied the four spots both in fiction and debut fiction.
The full shortlists are as follows.
Fiction: Force of Nature, Jane Harper; The Choke, Sofie Laguna; On the Java Ridge, Jock Serong, and City of Crows, Chris Womersley???.
Debut fiction: Wimmera, Mark Brandi; Australia Day, Melanie Cheng; The Last Man in Europe, Dennis Glover, and See What I Have Done, Sarah Schmidt.
Non-fiction: Working Class Man, Jimmy Barnes; The Museum of Words, Georgia Blain; Saga Land, Richard Fidler and Kari Gislason, and The Trauma Cleaner, Sarah Krasnostein.
Illustrated non-fiction: Maggie's Recipe for Life, Maggie Beer with Professor Ralph Martins; Cornersmith: Salads and Pickles, Alex Elliott-Howery and Sabine Spindler; Native: Art & Design with Australian Plants, Kate Herd and Jela Ivankovic-Waters, and Beyond the Rock, Janelle McCulloch.
Young-adult: Beautiful Mess, Claire Christian; Take Three Girls, Cath Crowley, Fiona Wood and Simmone Howell; Untidy Towns, Kate O'Donnell, and Wilder Country, Mark Smith.
Children's: Pig the Star, Aaron Blabey; I'm Australian Too, Mem Fox and Ronojoy Ghosh; Polly and Buster: The Wayward Witch and the Feelings Monster, Sally Rippin, and Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow, Jessica Townsend.
The category winners and the overall book of the year will be announced on March 26.