This award was not offered in 2011.
'Anam is a novel about memory and inheritance, colonialism and belonging, home and exile.
'A grandson tries to learn the family story. But what kind of story is it? Is it a prison memoir, about the grandfather imprisoned without charge or trial by a revolutionary government? Is it an oral history of the grandmother left behind to look after the children? Or is it a love story, or a detective tale?
'Moving from 1930s Hanoi through a series of never-ending wars and displacements to Saigon, Paris, Melbourne and Cambridge, Anam is a novel about memory and inheritance, colonialism and belonging, home and exile.
'Andre Dao mines his family and personal stories to turnover ideas that resonate with all of us around place and home, family legacy and expectations, ambition and sacrifice.
'Anam blends fiction and essay, theory and everyday life to imagine that which has been repressed, left out, and forgotten by archives and by families. As the grandson sifts through letters, photographs, government documents and memories, he has his own family to think about- a partner and an infant daughter. Is there a way to remember the past that creates a future for them as well? Or does coming home always involve a certain amount of forgetting?' (Publication summary)
'Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings Debut Spotlight feature. For February that debut is My Brilliant Sister by Amy Brown (Scribner Australia), a genre-bending novel exploring Brown’s own life and reimagining the lives of one of Australia’s most celebrated writers, Miles Franklin. We spoke to Amy about her experience in the publishing industry and what advice she has for other writers.' (Introduction)
Melanie Cheng's Australia Day is a' bittersweet, beautifully crafted collection' about the conflicts and realisations that occur when people of different backgrounds are brought together. She spoke to interviewer Hilary Simmons. (Summary)