"The Sydney Morning Herald" is reporting that the Australian Society of Authors announced its new Australian literary award over the weekend. The award, to be worth at least $35,000, will be presented each year to "the best novel written by an Australian author that depicts women and girls in a positive way or otherwise empowers the status of women and girls in society. The novel may be in any genre and it is not necessary for it to be set in Australia." The first year of the award will be 2008, though no details of the required publication dates have been released.
Is this just an Australian attempt to emulate the Orange Prize, but giving it a slight twist by emulating the Miles Franklin Award and restricting the subject matter? And what do they mean by "positive"? On first blush, I'm a bit underwhelmed by this.
