The State Library of NSW has opened nominations for the NSW Premier's History Awards 2013. According to NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell: "Fostering of scholarship in literature and history is central to civil society. Knowledge of who we are and where we have come from creates a richer, more tolerant and more confident society." The winners will be presented at an awards ceremony in September 2013. Administered by the State Library of NSW, in association with Arts NSW, the NSW Premier's History Awards offers prizes in five categories:

• Australian History Prize • General History Prize • New South Wales Community and Regional History Prize • Young People's History Prize • Multimedia History Prize

Total prize money in 2013 is $75,000 - $15,000 for each category.

All works nominated for the NSW Premier's History Awards 2013 must be published, produced or made publicly available between 1 April 2012 and 31 March 2013. For more information contact: Kate Butler, Senior Project Officer, Awards, State Library of NSW (02) 9273 1582, awards@sl.nsw.gov.au

The Trust Company, as Trustee, and the 2013 judging panel have announced an all-female shortlist for this year's Miles Franklin Literary Award. Regarded as Australia's oldest and most prestigious literary prize, the 2013 Miles Franklin Award shortlist, announced today at the State Library of New South Wales, features five of Australia's most talented female authors - including three first time novelists.The Miles Franklin Literary Award was established with proceeds from the estate of My Brilliant Career author, Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin, to support and encourage authors of Australian literature. The winner will be announced on Wednesday 19 June 2013 in Canberra at the National Library of Australia, and will receive $60,000 for the novel judged to be of the highest literary merit which "must present Australian life in any of its phases" in line with Miles Franklin's wishes.

Each of the five shortlisted authors will also receive $5,000 in prize money from the Copyright Agency's Cultural Fund, a long term partner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award.

The 2013 Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist is: •Romy Ash - Floundering • Annah Faulkner - The Beloved • Michelle de Kretser - Questions of Travel •Drusilla Modjeska - The Mountain • Carrie Tiffany - Mateship with Birds

Speaking on behalf of the judging panel, Richard Neville, Mitchell Librarian, State Library of New South Wales said:

"The five novels in the 2013 Miles Franklin Shortlist are at a surface level all about family – the searching for their comfort, the crises when they fail, escaping their pervasive grasp, or the despair when they do not seem possible – but more deeply these books write about the intersection of people's lives with national, indeed international, stories and ideas. Each approaches their subject from very different perspectives, but all deliver complex, engrossing narratives which persist long after the books are closed!" Congrats to all the authors and publishers!!!

The Stella Prize is an annual literary award that celebrates Australian women's writing. Named after one of Australia's most beloved female authors, it rewards one writer with a prize of $50,000, while working to raise the profile of Australian women's writing and encourage young female writers. This year's winner was Carrie Tiffany, for her excellent work Mateship With Birds. Carrie graciously announced that she would give $10,000 of her prize to the other nominees to honour them and their work. Congratulations to Carrie and the shortlisted authors.

The book has also been longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Awards.

Building on the success of the 2011 '1901 Fest Creative Competition' entries are now being called for in the 2012 award.

This year's competition is about the adventures of the bushman or woman in 1901 in your area. Entries now also cover photography, short films, bush poetry writing and reading and there's no age-limit for entering.

Prizes will also be given out to the best entries and performers. A schools trophy will also be awarded for the best overall entries (all activities).

For further information visit

All entries must be lodged by 5pm, 11th November, 2012.

Writing Australia's Unpublished Manuscript Award [WAUMA] is now open for submissions.

The $10,000 cash prize and $2,000 mentorship will aid in the development of the next stage of an unpublished adult fiction manuscript. It will be granted to the work that shows the greatest promise and is likely to benefit most from this opportunity. Unrestricted by genre, geographic location or age, the award is designed to support writers on their journey to publication by provided a monetary prize as well as an invaluable formal mentorship. Despite only being in its second year, this prize is already establishing itself as Australia's preeminent national manuscript award, assisting writers on their pathway to national and international writing success. In 2011, the inaugural WAUMA was won by 27 year-old South Australian Hannah Kent for her manuscript Burial Rights. Writing Australia secured Hannah a mentorship with internationally esteemed author Geraldine Brooks. On the back of the award, Hannah secured an agent, an Australian publisher, and was the subject of the now well-known international bidding war, which saw her sign book deals amounting to more than $1 million. Her book will be published in the US, UK, France, Italy, Brazil and the Netherlands.

On the success of the 2011 award, Writing Australia has secured a group of highly respected judges for 2012, including Nobel Prize winner JM Coetzee, Toni Jordan, Alan Gould and Aviva Tuffield.Winners will be announced in late January.

The Award is managed by the SA Writers' Centre on behalf of Writing Australia. For further information go to: http://writingaustralia.org.au/unpublished-manuscript-awards-2012/ Media contact: Vanessa Jones, 0882237662, vanessa@sawriters.org.au

The State Library of NSW, in association with Arts NSW, will manage of The Premier's Literary Awards and The Premier's History Awards.Nominations for these awards are now open. Applications will close at 5pm on Friday 1 June 2012.

For more information and to nominate for these awards please visit the State Library of NSW website (http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/). Select About the Library and from the drop down menu, select Awards and Fellowships. Both The Premier's Literary Award and The Premier's History Award are listed here. Click on the title to open further information, and nomination forms.

Writers keen to enter the Banjo Paterson Writing Awards are reminded entries close Friday 20 April - tomorrow. Entries postmarked with this date will be accepted in the competition.

This year marks the 21st anniversary of the Banjo Paterson Writing Awards and to celebrate the occasion adult category winners will receive a limited edition Banjo bust sculpture by local artist Michael Lewis as part of their prize.

Poet, solicitor, journalist, war correspondent and ballad writer Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson (1864 – 1941) was born near Orange and each year Central West Libraries in conjunction with the Central West Writers' Centre, The Central Western Daily and ABC Central West Radio announce the call for entries to the Banjo Paterson Writing Awards.

There are four categories: Prose or Short Story (Category 1) Open Poetry (Category 2) Bush Poetry (Category 3) and ABC Central West Radio Children's Writing Awards for children aged under 16 years. Entry forms can be downloaded from www.wordsoutwest.com

The 2012 NSW LitLink Varuna program, funded by Arts NSW, provides NSW writers living outside Sydney with professional development and the opportunity to live and work within a unique community of writers. Submitted manuscripts may be fiction or non-fiction prose, and in any narrative genre, such as literary fiction and non-fiction, young adult or junior fiction, travel writing, and family memoir.

Varuna, the Writers' House, seeks to identify and develop the best new Australian writing. It provides writers with a residential retreat, professional development and pathways to publication.

Applications open on 1 May 2012 and close on 31 May 2012. All entries must be delivered electronically by 5pm on 31 May. The recipients of the LitLink Varuna Fellowships will be posted on Varuna's website on Monday 2nd July 2012. Shortlisted applicants for the Byron Bay Writers Festival/Varuna LitLink Unpublished Manuscript Award will also be posted on the Varuna website, as well as the Byron Bay Writers Festival website, on 2 July 2012.

The NSW LitLink Varuna residency period is 20 August to 3 September 2012. For all the details go to the Varuna website: www.varuna.com.au

http://varuna.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=216:litlink-guidelines-2012&catid=48:what-we-offer-writers

Co-ordinated by Macquarie Regional Library, the Rolf Boldrewood Literary Awards commemorate the writer and writing of Robbery Under Arms in Dubbo. They are awarded for prose and poetry with an Australian theme. First prize in each section is a bronze Boldrewood bust valued at $100 plus $500. Second prize is $250 and third prize $150. Highly Commended and Commended certificates are awarded at the judges¹ discretion. It is interesting to note that the poetry winner, Kevin Pye, was highly commended last year, and second and third prize winner, Max Merckenschlager, commended. Max was first and second in the poetry in 2009. Poetry Judge was Valerie Pybus adn the winners are:

1st Place ­ Kevin Pye, NSW, Lawson Country; 2nd Place ­ Max Merckenschlager, SA; An Earl¹s Son; 3rd Place ­ Max Merckenschlager, SA, Helping Hands in Crowdy Head. Commended ­Frank Cardiff, NSW, Dreamtime Dreaming.

Prose Judge was Peter Pike and the winners are: 1st Place ­ Joan Owens, NSW, Sunday; 2nd Place ­ Natalie Holmes, NSW; My Mate Reg; 3rd Place ­ Richard Stone, ACT, Father¹s Visit to Kincumber.

Highly Commended ­ Lyn Newberry, NSW, The Scent of a Criminal Highly Commended ­ RE Beattie, NSW, The Jackson Inheritance Highly Commended ­ Judith Turner, NSW, The Gypsy Tap

Commended ­ Edward Fletcher, QLD, Dark Messenger; Commended ­ Harold Mally, NSW; The Original Pommie Bastard; Commended ­WR Widerberg, NSW, Paradox; Commended ­ Ken Windsor, NSW, The Search for Uncle Tom. Congratulations to all the winners! Well Done!

WooHoo! Rousing cheers and applause goes to local illustrator Freya Blackwood for her win today in the Children's Book Council of Australia Awards for Early Childhood Book of the Year! Freya won for her illustrations in the book Maudie and Bear written by Jan Ormerod.

The two honour books in the Early Childhood section were The Tall Man and Twelve Babies by Tom Niland Champion and Kilmeny Niland with illustrations by Deborah Niland; and Look See, Look at Me by Leonie Norrington and illustrated by Dee Huxley.

We have the shortlisted books on display at Orange City Library and you can also check out book reviews by the Library team who have enjoyed reading the shortlisted books over the past month. Way to go Freya!