History
Notes
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The Randwick Award for Literature, a biennial award for published writers of fiction, was inaugurated in 2010. A $10,000 prize is awarded to the work judged to have 'the highest outstanding literary merit'. The award is open to works of fiction written in English by an Australian writer and published within the two previous to the award date.
The first year of the award formed part of the Randwick City Council's ongoing legacy from their 150th anniversary celebrations in 2009. The award 'aims to foster a wide appreciation of literature in our community and stimulate the arts and culture in our City. It fulfils the 20-year Randwick City Plan and the vision of our Cultural Plan to "foster an environment that recognises, supports and celebrates our community's cultural diversity and the many forms of creative expression including literature".
Source: Randwick City Council website, http://www.randwick.nsw.gov.au/
Sighted: 11/10/2010
Latest Winners / Recipients
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Year: 2010
inaugural winner y
Parrot and Olivier in America
Camberwell
:
Hamish Hamilton
,
2009
Z1584172
2009
single work
novel
historical fiction
'Olivier is a young aristocrat, one of an endangered species born in France just after the Revolution. Parrot, the son of an itinerant English printer, wanted to be an artist but has ended up in middle age as a servant.
When Olivier sets sail for the New World - ostensibly to study its prisons, but in reality to avoid yet another revolution - Parrot is sent with him, as spy, protector, foe and foil. Through their adventures with women and money, incarceration and democracy, writing and painting, they make an unlikely pair. But where better for unlikely things to flourish than in the glorious, brand-new experiment, America?
A dazzlingly inventive reimagining of Alexis de Tocqueville's famous journey, Parrot and Olivier in America brilliantly evokes the Old World colliding with the New. Above all, it is a wildly funny, tender portrait of two men who come to form an almost impossible friendship, and a completely improbable work of art.' (From the publisher's website.)
Works About this Award
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Undercover 2010 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 30-31 October 2010; (p. 31) A column canvassing current literary news including reports on the launch of John Howard's memoir Lazarus Rising and Peter Carey's win in the inaugural Randwick Award for Literature.
