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Re: The Printz Award and Australian / NZ Authors
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From: Judith Ridge <judith.ridge_at_gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2012 15:43:30 +1000
On 18 August 2012 03:00, Kathleen Horning wrote:
Thanks, Angela and Todd, for the additions. Australia is very well represented!
Why do you think so many Printz Award winners originate in Australia?
Because we're awesome! And so are our writers!
OK, you have to give me that one.
Obviously, I can't necessarily account for why Australian (and NZ) writers have been so successful in your Printz awards, but clearly it's a wonderful thing that thrills us enormously. What I can say is that over my many years working in children's and YA lit, I have consistently heard from my US colleagues how highly you regard our writers. Words like 'fresh' and 'brave' have been used, and even though there have been times that I think that the books coming out of the US are far more ground-breaking than ours (we have a surprisingly small number of queer YA fiction, for example) nevertheless there seems to be something about the Australian sensibility that comes through in writing that seems to really appeal in the US. At least to the judges!
In answer to KT's other questions: yes, all (or most) of these writers are highly regarded 'at home', but what is curious to me is that sometimes you recognise books that didn't do so well here. Melina Marchetta, for example, has been a huge star in Australia, a rock star of YA literature, in fact, since the publication of her first novel, Looking for Alibrandi. I would hazard a guess and say that it's Australia's best-selling YA novel ever, and one of the few to be made into a feature film. Melina wrote the script for the film, and won awards for it, as well as Alibrandi and its ten years later successor, Saving Francesca, both of which won the Children's book council of Australia Book of the Year Award.
(The CBC in Australia, FYI, is not a publisher's organisation as it is in the US, but a voluntary organisation largely made up of teachers and librarians. Most of the Book of the Year awards judges are Teacher-Librarians.)
Getting back to my example of Melina...
As I said, Alibrandi was a phenomenon in this country, taken to heart by readers and critics alike. It was ten years between books for Melina, before Saving Francesca--a much better book, very well received, but not as loved as Alibrandi, despite sharing many of its themes and so on.
On the Jellicoe Road, though--just 'Jellicoe Road' in the US--barely raised a ripple here. And I still think it is by far her best book--technically proficient, emotionally sophisticated and with my all-time favourite YA romance. (I even made a Ryan Gosling meme for a tumbler about Taylor and Jonah! *http://tinyurl.com/8ulyale *) But I don't think it even made the Notable Books list here. I've always put it down to the fact that it wasn't Alibrandi Part 3, but others may take a different view on whether or not Melina was pigeon-holed by her early success. (She's come out the other side of it, if she was.)
(Also a little treat for Jellicoe fans: the book references a song called Flame Trees. It's a real song, one of the best Australian songs from the 80s, by one of our biggest bands, Cold Chisel. You can see and hear it on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILd1O44BDqc Lyrics here: http://www.coldchisel.com/flame-trees/ )
Christine Hinwood is, I think it's fair to say, the least well-known of the Australian authors honoured by the Printz. Bloodflower flew quite under the radar here--it was a bit of a surprise (and a lovely one, of course) to see it on the Printz list.
And how well known is the Printz award in Australia? Very well known to those of us in the industry, reasonably well known to librarians, less well known (ie very little, I'd guess) to the general reading public.
And for those of you wanting to find out more about Australian YA, check out the Great YA Championship at the Kill Your Darlings blog:
Cheers,
Judith
Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2012 15:43:30 +1000
On 18 August 2012 03:00, Kathleen Horning wrote:
Thanks, Angela and Todd, for the additions. Australia is very well represented!
Why do you think so many Printz Award winners originate in Australia?
Because we're awesome! And so are our writers!
OK, you have to give me that one.
Obviously, I can't necessarily account for why Australian (and NZ) writers have been so successful in your Printz awards, but clearly it's a wonderful thing that thrills us enormously. What I can say is that over my many years working in children's and YA lit, I have consistently heard from my US colleagues how highly you regard our writers. Words like 'fresh' and 'brave' have been used, and even though there have been times that I think that the books coming out of the US are far more ground-breaking than ours (we have a surprisingly small number of queer YA fiction, for example) nevertheless there seems to be something about the Australian sensibility that comes through in writing that seems to really appeal in the US. At least to the judges!
In answer to KT's other questions: yes, all (or most) of these writers are highly regarded 'at home', but what is curious to me is that sometimes you recognise books that didn't do so well here. Melina Marchetta, for example, has been a huge star in Australia, a rock star of YA literature, in fact, since the publication of her first novel, Looking for Alibrandi. I would hazard a guess and say that it's Australia's best-selling YA novel ever, and one of the few to be made into a feature film. Melina wrote the script for the film, and won awards for it, as well as Alibrandi and its ten years later successor, Saving Francesca, both of which won the Children's book council of Australia Book of the Year Award.
(The CBC in Australia, FYI, is not a publisher's organisation as it is in the US, but a voluntary organisation largely made up of teachers and librarians. Most of the Book of the Year awards judges are Teacher-Librarians.)
Getting back to my example of Melina...
As I said, Alibrandi was a phenomenon in this country, taken to heart by readers and critics alike. It was ten years between books for Melina, before Saving Francesca--a much better book, very well received, but not as loved as Alibrandi, despite sharing many of its themes and so on.
On the Jellicoe Road, though--just 'Jellicoe Road' in the US--barely raised a ripple here. And I still think it is by far her best book--technically proficient, emotionally sophisticated and with my all-time favourite YA romance. (I even made a Ryan Gosling meme for a tumbler about Taylor and Jonah! *http://tinyurl.com/8ulyale *) But I don't think it even made the Notable Books list here. I've always put it down to the fact that it wasn't Alibrandi Part 3, but others may take a different view on whether or not Melina was pigeon-holed by her early success. (She's come out the other side of it, if she was.)
(Also a little treat for Jellicoe fans: the book references a song called Flame Trees. It's a real song, one of the best Australian songs from the 80s, by one of our biggest bands, Cold Chisel. You can see and hear it on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILd1O44BDqc Lyrics here: http://www.coldchisel.com/flame-trees/ )
Christine Hinwood is, I think it's fair to say, the least well-known of the Australian authors honoured by the Printz. Bloodflower flew quite under the radar here--it was a bit of a surprise (and a lovely one, of course) to see it on the Printz list.
And how well known is the Printz award in Australia? Very well known to those of us in the industry, reasonably well known to librarians, less well known (ie very little, I'd guess) to the general reading public.
And for those of you wanting to find out more about Australian YA, check out the Great YA Championship at the Kill Your Darlings blog:
Cheers,
Judith
--Received on Tue 21 Aug 2012 03:43:30 PM CDT
