WeLove2Read2

The Love2Read "Our Story" shortlist has been announced. Of the winning titles, 7/8 of them are written by men. The full list can be found here. The one book by an Australian woman was Ros Moriarty's Listening to Country.


In case you're wondering whether the gender bias might have been due to the selection criteria, here's a list of questions those nominating books were asked to consider:

• How well does the book convey a sense of place?
• How well would the book convey the Australian experience to non-Australians?
• How well does the author connect with the reader?
• How ‘unputdownable’ was the book?
• How likely would you be to recommend this book to a friend?

There was also a detailed checklist for publishers:

• The date of first publication must be 1945 or later. 
• The subject of the book can be historical or modern day.
• The author must be identified as Australian – not necessarily Australian-born, but someone who can legitimately be described as an Australian writer.
• The author needn’t be currently resident in Australia.
• They don’t have to live in the state or territory in which their book is set.
• The book must give a strong sense of place.  For example, if someone were to describe it, would they say “it’s set in WA”? 
• The action can move between different locations in Australia and overseas, but at its core, it has to be the Australian experience. 
• Even if the book crosses the continent, the publisher will need to nominate one state or territory long list in which this work should be included.

Panels selected from each state were asked to create a longlist from the books so nominated.


Their objective
To identify a set of eight books, which together describe what it’s like to live in, be from, visit or in some other way connect with the eight different states and territories. It’s to create a collection of books which, if read together, will articulate the Australian experience – remote, regional, suburban, city and metropolitan.

Criteria 

• The books must be written by modern Australian writers (post WWII). 
• They must be appropriate for an adult audience (YA crossover novels are included but not children’s books).
• Writers must be published and the nominated book must be in print – it can also be in ebook format, but shouldn’t be exclusively in an ebook format.
• Any genre can be put forward fiction, non-fiction, biographies, anthologies, poetry.

(Information supplied by Robyn Ellard, Project Director, and Sue McKerracher of The Library Agency, 2011)

Do you know of any books that meet these criteria that might have been selected but were overlooked?