Only six books were entered in this year's $7500 Kathleen Mitchell Award for Young Writers, which was won by Randa Abdel-Fattah for Ten Things I Hate about Me (Pan).

The novel ‘tackled a number of tricky issues--teenage sexuality, family relations, politics and cultural identity--in an entertaining and stimulating way,' said judges Susan Geason, Cameron Morley and Camilla Nelson.

Organisers suggested that the low level of entries may be a sign of the times. ‘Young people who may have written novels in the past are now writing in a landscape that is wider than that of just books. Many are now writing for film, television, zines and games, or are exercising their creativity by blogging.'

Established in 1996, the biennial Kathleen Mitchell Award is for Australian novelists under 30. Past winners include Sonya Hartnett (Sleeping Dogs), James Bradley (Wrack), Julia Leigh (The Hunter), Lucy Lehmann (The Showgirl and the Brumby) and Markus Zusak (The Book Thief).

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This article from Thorpe Bowker's Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

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