Enter the Rolf Boldrewood Awards: Closes 16 Sept

Macquarie Regional Library is calling on all budding authors and poets to submit entries in the annual Rolf Boldrewood Literary Awards which aim to foster the writing of prose and poetry with an Australian content.

The Awards - which began in 2006 - are named in honour of the Dubbo-based author of the famous 19th century Australian novel Robbery Under Arms, and is a collaboration between Macquarie Regional Library and the Outback Writers' Centre.

Rolf Boldrewood was the pen name of Thomas Alexander Browne who wrote Robbery Under Arms during his term as Police Magistrate in Dubbo between 1881 and 1884. Browne's term as the Magistrate provided the facts to write the fictional account of Captain Starlight, the hero of the story.

Robbery Under Arms was first published in 1888 and is considered one of Australia's three great colonial novels. It has never been out of print, has been translated into 13 languages and made into five films.

The competition categories include: •Prose - fiction or family history memoir; and •Poetry - in any form or style.

Both must have an Australian theme.

A cash prize of $500 will be awarded to the first place winners in both competition categories. Entries close Friday, 16 September 2011 with the presentation of the Awards to be held at the Dubbo Branch Library on 5 November 2011.

For more information contact Council's Director Macquarie Regional Library John Bayliss on 6801 4501.