Minister for the Arts Joy Burch recently announced that local author Gordon Peake’s book Beloved Land: Stories, Struggles and Secrets from Timor-Leste has triumphed over a record field of 48 nominations to win both the 2014 ACT Book of the Year Award and the inaugural People’s Choice Award.
The ACT Book of the Year Award recognises quality works by local authors published in the previous calendar year with the aim of supporting the development of ACT based writers and promoting writing in the ACT. The Award winner receives $10,000.
“Congratulations to Dr Peake who has not only won the $10,000 Award but was also chosen as the winner of the inaugural People’s Choice Award,” Ms Burch said. “The judging panel described Beloved Land as “a compelling work merging the personal with the historical … surprising, sometimes confronting and very poignant”, and the public obviously agreed, with Beloved Land attracting almost 40 per cent of the votes cast.”
Ms Burch also congratulated the other shortlisted authors: Scott Bridges for 18 Days: Al Jazeera English and the Egyptian Revolution, Clive Hamilton for Earthmasters: Playing God with the Climate, Lesley Lebkowicz for The Petrov Poems and Lucy Neave for Who We Were.