The Prime Minister may change but other things connected to the office don't. One of them is the Prime Minister's Literary Awards, set up by Kevin Rudd in almost his first action on winning the 2007 election.
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The shortlists for this year's awards, which are worth $80,000 to the winner and $5000 to shortlisted authors have been announced
The fiction award sees the pre-announcement favourites for the Miles Franklin, Sonya Hartnett and Joan London, locking metaphorical horns again, although they face stiff competition from Peter Carey, Elizabeth Harrower and Rohan Wilson.
David Malouf is up for the poetry prize along with Judith Beveridge, Stephen Edgar, Geoffrey Lehmann and Alex Skovron.
Alan Atkinson has already won several awards for his three-volume history of the Europeans in Australia and is shortlisted for the history prize along with Peter Brune, Ross Coulthart, Anne Henderson and David Horner.
Helen Garner's This House of Grief, her account of the Robert Farquharson trial, is up for the non-fiction prize along with Darleen Bungey, Barrie Cassidy, John Gascoigne and Michael Wilding.
Darren Groth, Rebecca Lim, Doug MacLeod, Diana Sweeney and Claire Zorn are shortlisted for the young-adult fiction prize and Tristan Bancks, Nicola Connelly, Irena Kobald, David Metzenthen and Judith Rossell are listed for the children's fiction prize.
The full lists are – Fiction: Amnesia, Peter Carey; In Certain Circles, Elizabeth Harrower; Golden Boys, Sonya Hartnett; The Golden Age, Joan London; To Name Those Lost, Rohan Wilson.
Poetry: Devadatta's Poems, Judith Beveridge; Exhibits of the Sun, Stephen Edgar; Poems 1957-2013, Geoffrey Lehmann; Earth Hour, David Malouf; Towards the Equator: New & Selected Poems, Alex Skovron.
Australian History: The Europeans in Australia, Volume Three: Nation, Alan Atkinson; Descent into Hell, Peter Brune; Charles Bean, Ross Coulthart; Menzies at War, Anne Henderson; The Spy Catchers – The Official History of ASIO Vol I, David Horner.
Non-fiction: John Olsen _An Artist's Life, Darleen Bungey; Private Bill, Barrie Cassidy; This House of Grief: The Story of a Murder Trial, Helen Garner; Encountering the Pacific: In the Age of Enlightenment, John Gascoigne; Wild Bleak Bohemia: Marcus Clarke, Adam Lindsay Gordon and Henry Kendall, Michael Wilding.
Young adult fiction: Are You Seeing Me?, Darren Groth; The Astrologer's Daughter, Rebecca Lim; Tigers on the Beach, Doug MacLeod; The Minnow, Diana Sweeney; The Protected, Claire Zorn.
Children's fiction: Two Wolves, Tristan Bancks; My Dad is a Bear, Nicola Connelly, ills., Annie White; My Two Blankets, Irena Kobald, ills., Freya Blackwood; One Minute's Silence, David Metzenthen, ills., Michael Camilleri; Withering-by-Sea, Judith Rossell.
The awards will be presented in early December.