Gervay wins Lady Cutler Award

Author Susanne Gervay has been awarded the Lady Cutler Award for 2007 by the NSW branch of the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA).

The award judges said that Gervay was chosen in recognition of 'her generosity in supporting of the ideals of the CBCA, her tireless work in encouraging authors and illustrators through networking groups at the Hughenden and through the Society of Book Writers and Illustrators, and her contribution to the development of new authors through mentoring and support networks.'

Gervey will receive her award at the Lady Cutler Dinner on the 27 November. Glenda Millard, winner of the Queensland Premier's Prize for Layla - Queen of Hearts, will be the after-dinner speaker.

'Careless' wins Colin Roderick Award
Careless by Deborah Robertson (Picador) is the winner of this year's Colin Roderick Award for the best Australian book of the year. The prize, worth $10,000 and the H T Priestly medal were awarded to Robertson at an award dinner on 4 October. Careless was chosen from a shortlist made up of The Great War (Les Carlyon, Pan); Asbestos House (Gideon Haigh, Scribe); Things I Didn't Know (Robert Hughes, Knopf); Unpolished Gem (Alice Pung, Black Inc.); The Goddess Advantage (Angela Pippos, Text); and The Curer of Souls (Lindsay Simpson, Vintage).

Zusak wins 'South African Booker'
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (Picador) has won the 2007 South African Boeke Prize. Zusak's novel beat a shortlist made up of A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hosseini, Bloomsbury); Measuring the World (Daniel Kehlmann, Quercus), No Country for Old Men (Cormac McCarthy, Pan Macmillan), The Emperor's Children (Claire Messud, Pan Macmillan); Exile (Richard North Patterson, Pan Macmillan), The End of Mr Y (Scarlett Thomas Text) and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (Paul Torday, Orion).

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 2007, Thorpe-Bowker