In news just to hand (I've always wanted to write that) Minister Assisting the Premier on the Arts, Virginia Judge today congratulated Sydney author Margo Lanagan, who has been awarded the 2008 NSW Writer's Fellowship. Ms Lanagan will use the $20,000 fellowship to write a literary fantasy novel set in colonial northern NSW. Ms Judge said "the Rees Government is committed to supporting our writers and encouraging the creative industries. Margo Lanagan is a well-respected writer and deserving winner of this prestigious award. Over a 17-year career, Ms Lanagan has published novels for a diverse range of readers, including children, young people and adults". Ms Lanagan won the 2007 Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award (older readers) for Red Spikes. The 2008 selection committee of Anne Brewster (Chair), Stephen Measday and Mark Tredinnick also commended authors Georgia Blain, Chris Mansell and Mandy Sayer.

The 2009 Interactive Press (IP) Picks Awards for Unpublished Manuscripts are open for submissions until 1 December. Now in its eighth year, this national competition invites submissions for Best Fiction, Best Creative Non-fiction, Best Poetry and Best First Book. The Awards are open to citizens/residents of Australia, and, for the first time, citizens/residents of New Zealand. The winners in each category and two of the Highly Commended entrants are being published by IP under royalty contracts. One of the winners and one of the highly commended were subsequently endorsed by the Literature Board of the Australia Council. The winner for Best Poetry 2007 was Mark O'Flynn for his work What can be Proven. For entry forms and conditions visit the website www.ipoz.biz or send a self-addressed stamped envelope to IP, Treetop Studio, 9 Kuhler Court, Carindale 4152.

Cutwater is an upcoming literary anthology that will collect the best in Australian writing from new and emerging authors. With the assistance of an Australia Council Write In Your Face grant, Cutwater is currently seeking work from around the nation - fiction, literary non-fiction, poetry, zines, comics and anything in between - to be published in glorious book form in 2009. The theme of Cutwater's inaugural volume is 'Ratbags'. Writers are invited to send up to three submissions of 5,000 words or less, via post only by 30 November, to: Cutwater Literary Journal PO BOX 52 Toukley NSW 2263 For more details on submissions go to the blog at: http://www.cutwaterjournal.blogspot.com/ Let out the inner ratbag.

Vietnamese Australian author Nam Le has won the 2008 Dylan Thomas Prize for his first short story collection titled The Boat. It is one of the richest literary prizes in the world ($140,000) and is awarded for the best writer in the English language aged under 30. Judges described Nam Le as a "phenomenal literary talent and said his work demonstrated "a rare brilliance that is breathtaking both in the scope of its subject matter and the quality of its writing". The chair of the Dylan Thomas Prize judging panel, Peter Florence, said Nam tackles his own background and circumstances as well as that of others with a clear eye, focused intelligence and wonderful use of words. "He is, in this panel's opinion, a phenomenal literary talent, and I look forward to following his career as it progresses." Nam Le has previously won the Pushcart Prize, the Michener-Copernicus Society of America Award, and fellowships from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, the Fine Arts Work Centre in Provincetown and Phillips Exeter Academy. Nam Le was one of six finalists. The other writers shortlisted for the prize, sponsored by Wales University, were British writers Ross Raisin (for God's Own Country), Edward Hogan (Blackmoor) and Caroline Bird (Trouble Came To The Turnip), and South African-born Ceridwen Dovey (Blood Kin) and Ethiopian Dinaw Mengestu (Children Of The Revolution).

Friday is a great day not only because we are heading towards the weekend but it is also the day you can pitch your fiction work to a publisher. It is something to aim for if you are writing adult fiction......fiction publisher at Allen & Unwin's new Arena Imprint, Louise Thurtell, has made EVERY Friday her pitch day. Authors of adult popular fiction who are looking for publication can send Louise their FIRST chapter and a synopsis by email (preferably) or mail to reach her on a FRIDAY. Louise will read all submissions but will only get back to authors whose work she wants to take further. For more details about this opportunity go to the Allen & Unwin website. http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=462

Now in its 40th year, the Booker Prize has become one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world. Aravind Adiga has been named the winner of the $125,000 Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2008 for his novel The White Tiger published by Atlantic. The thirty-three year old novelist was presented the prize at an awards ceremony at Guildhall, London. Adiga becomes the third debut novelist, and the second Indian debut novelist, to win the award in the forty year history of the prize. The two other debut novelists to have won the prize are DBC Pierre in 2003 for his novel Vernon God Little and Arundhati Roy in 1997 for The God of Small Things. Aravind Adiga's winning novel The White Tiger is described as a compelling, angry and darkly humorous novel about a man's journey from Indian village life to entrepreneurial success. It was described by one reviewer as an unadorned portrait of India seen from the bottom of the heap. The White Tiger is the ninth winning novel to take its inspiration from India or Indian identity. Read more about the author and book at www.themanbookerprize.com

Regional writers from around Australia present a program of workshops, readings & discussions in romance, crime, poetry, young adult fiction and short story writing. And if you have a writing project you are seeking advice on, you can book in for a one-on-one consultation (each event $15). This is a great opportunity for budding writers to learn and enjoy! To book for an event please contact Varuna via email and then complete a booking form available on the website. For full timetable details & booking form go to www.varuna.com.au and the Varuna Community Open Day is being held on Saturday, 11 October from 2 to 4pm with readings and afternoon tea in the garden at Varuna – this is a free event. LongLines Community Week brings writers from all round Australia to Varuna specially to work with the writers of the Blue Mountains community. Supported by the Blue Mountains City Council through the Cultural Partnerships Program, LongLines Community Week is a thank you from Australia's regional writers to the Blue Mountains community for the gift of Varuna – The Writers' House.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced the winners of the PM's Literary Awards. He said the judging panel are to be commended for the meticulous and thoughtful consideration they have given to the selection of Australian fiction and non-fiction entered in these new awards. Both winners receive a prize of $100,000 each. The winners are: Non-fiction: Ochre and Rust by Philip Jones takes Aboriginal artefacts from their museum shelves and traces their stories, revealing charged and nuanced moments of encounter in Australia's frontier history. Fiction: The Zookeepers' War by Steven Conte is a story of passion and sacrifice in a city battered by war. It is 1943 and each night in a bomb shelter beneath the Berlin Zoo an Australian woman, Vera, shelters with her German husband, Axel, the zoo's director. It confronts not only the brutality of war but the possibility of heroism. For more details on the awards go to: http://www.arts.gov.au/books/pmliteraryawards

The Crime Writers Association of Australia was set up in the mid 1990s to promote and encourage Australian crimewriting through the establishment of the Ned Kelly Awards. The 'annual Neddies' have subsequently become an eagerly anticipated fixture on the Australian literary scene and the winners of the Ned Kelly Awards 2008 are:

Best First Fiction: The Low Road, Chris Womersley (Scribe) Best Fiction: Shatter, Michael Robotham (Hachette Livre) Best Non-Fiction: Red Centre, Dark Heart, Evan McHugh (Penguin) Lifetime Achievement Award Marele Day. It is fantastic recognition for Michael Robotham who visited Orange as Ambassador for Books Alive. Check out the image gallery for the awards event at www.nedkellyawards.com

The HarperCollins Varuna Awards for manuscript development 2008/2009 are now open. Two new novels developed through this program will be launched early in 2009 –Tasmanian Katherine Johnson's thrilling novel of a sea-chase in the icy Southern Ocean, Pescador's Wake, and South Australian writer Siew Siang Tay's sensitive and beautifully sad evocation of the world of the mail-order bride, Handpicked.

The essential feature of the program is that 5 senior HarperCollins editors select 5 projects and work with 5 writers in the supportive residential environment of Varuna –The Writers' House in the Blue Mountains of NSW. This is a wonderful opportunity for engagement and industry experience, and often for profound and unexpected development for both writer and editor. There's no guarantee of publication, but manuscripts are selected on the basis of their potential for publication.

If you're serious about a project of fiction or narrative non-fiction, and if it is developed to the point where an editor would have something solid and absorbing to work with, an application to the HarperCollins Varuna Awards for Manuscript Development is a valuable port of call. In the cases of Katherine Johnson and Siew Siang Tay it was the turning point in their writing careers.

Applications for the 2008/2009 program are now open (deadline October 30 2008) and full information, including guidelines and application forms, is available at www.varuna.com.au