It’s no surprise that Melissa Lucashenko’s Edenglassie has taken out the top gong at the 2024 Queensland Literary Awards. Her book has been critically acclaimed and embraced by readers everywhere.
The awards were announced Thursday night (September 5) to a packed auditorium at the State Library of Queensland. Lucashenko’s epic novel of Aboriginal lives five generations apart won the $30,000 Queensland Premier’s Award for a Work of State Significance.
It is, according to the judges, a novel that “elevates our understanding of Queensland’s soul”.
“In Edenglassie, Melissa Lucashenko masterfully weaves a historical tapestry that tears down barriers between past and present. Her deft storytelling bridges centuries with compelling characters and immersive detail, forging a narrative that not only evokes the complexities of history but also profoundly reimagines Australia’s collective memory.”
While the book is a fascinating insight into First Nations lives it’s also a bit of a history lesson for everyone. Who knew that early Brisbane was initially called Edenglassie, a portmanteau of the Scottish towns Edinburgh and Glasgow? Lucashenko did and her historical research is impeccable.
This is the second time Lucashenko has won the award, with her novel Too Much Lip taking out the prize in 2019.
With a state election pending it is worth remembering that one of Campbell Newman’s first acts as premier back in 2012 was to can the awards. The community didn’t stand for that, so the awards were revived and are thriving again at the State Library of Queensland, a natural home for an event that now has national significance.
2024 is the 10th anniversary of the State Library of Queensland managing the awards, in collaboration with sponsors, industry partners and the writing community.
The awards has increased to a total pool of $276,000 in prize money across 12 categories including fiction, non-fiction, poetry and published and unpublished work – up from $238,500 in 2023.
Re-mapping history through First Nations perspectives also plays a central part in Sharlene Allsopp’s debut novel The Great Undoing, winner of The University of Queensland Fiction Book Award, with a prize of $15,000.
The judges called Allsopp’s book “an anti-colonial collage” that “disrupts reader’s understandings of time, telling and place to ask how much of our histories are taken – and who gets to tell our stories”.
Arts minister Leeanne Enoch says the awards “shine a light on some of the country’s finest writers and are testament to the depth and breadth of Australia’s rich literary talent”.
“The Queensland Literary Awards recognise and celebrate the power of stories and storytellers to generate inspiration, empathy and entertainment within and across communities,” Enoch says. “By amplifying diverse literary voices and unique stories, the Queensland Literary Awards help to deliver on the Queensland Government’s 10-year Creative Together strategy to transform Queensland through arts, culture and creativity.”
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State Librarian and CEO Vicki McDonald says this year’s Queensland Literary Award winners “remind us how the very best writing actively examines the complexities of the human condition”.
“Through reflection, imagination and documentation, these authors show us this rare skill, across genres, styles and subjects,” McDonald says. For the full list of awards winners see the website:
slq.qld.gov.au/get-involved/awards-and-fellowships/queensland-literary-awards
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