Mary Li’s charming memoir is our book of the year

Queensland Ballet’s Mary Li has joined her iconic husband in the author stakes, and has taken out The Courier-Mail People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award.

Mary Li’s heartwarming memoir Mary’s Last Dance has won The Courier-Mail People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award for 2021.

Judged by popular vote from a field of eight fiction and nonfiction titles, the $10,000 award was announced at the Queensland Literary Awards ceremony at the State Library of Queensland on Thursday night.

Mary Li is ballet mistress and principal repetiteur at Queensland Ballet and is the wife of the company’s artistic director Li Cunxin, the author of the international bestseller Mao’s Last Dancer.

Now there is another best-selling author in the family and Mary Li said she was “overwhelmed” to win The Courier-Mail’s award.

“Being nominated was lovely but winning is amazing,” Li said.

“My daughter Sophie is just thrilled. Without her I couldn’t have done it.”

Mary Li with daughter Sophie. Picture: Brad Fleet

The book, published by Penguin Random House, tells the story of how a girl from Rockhampton went on to be an international ballet star. It’s also the story of how Mary Li coped when told daughter Sophie was profoundly deaf.

It was Sophie Li who encouraged her mum to tell her story and worked with her on early drafting of the manuscript. She says she is “so excited and pleased” the book won and she was on hand last night to cheer her mum on.

“I think mum’s book is a quintessential Australian story,” Sophie Li said. “People really responded to a story of overcoming adversity.”

The Courier-Mail’s editor Chris Jones says the book is an inspiring Queensland story that exemplifies the spirit of our state.

“We want to support Queensland writers and Queensland stories,” Chris Jones said. “Mary’s Last Dance is a worthy winner and a terrific story and one we have told in the pages of this newspaper.”

Luke Stegemann won the nonfiction award for his compelling book Amnesia Road

A book reclaiming the history of how Aboriginal workers were once paid in opium has taken out one of the richest prize of the night -.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk commended Dr Fiona Foley, who took out the $25,000 Queensland Premier‘s Award for a work of State Significance for Biting the Clouds: A Badtjala perspective on the Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act, 1897 (University of Queensland Press).

“Dr Foley’s prize-winning book, Biting the Clouds puts a spotlight on a terrible part of Queensland’s history when Aboriginal workers were paid their wages in opium,” the Premier said.

Artist and author Fiona Foley. Picture: Richard Dobson

“This significant truth telling account will play an important role in building a more inclusive and respectful future for Queensland.”

The $15,000 University of Queensland Fiction Award was won by Nardi Simpson for her novel Song of the Crocodile. Queensland author and amateur boxing referee Luke Stegemann won the $15,000 nonfiction award, also sponsored by UQ, for his compelling book about the landscape and dark history of Queensland’s South West.

Queensland Literary Awards winners

Queensland Premier‘s Award for a work of State Significance Awarded to an outstanding work, by an Australian writer, focused on documenting, discussing or highlighting a uniquely Queensland story. Prize: $25,000: Biting the Clouds: A Badtjala perspective on the Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act, 1897 by Fiona Foley (University of Queensland Press)

Queensland Writers Fellowships: Awarded to three (3) established Queensland authors to advance a writing project over a 12-month period. Prize: three Fellowships of $15,000 each, plus professional development support to the value of $4,500: Tabitha Bird for ‘The Healing Giggle of Wonder’, Ella Jeffery for ‘Split Level’, Kali Napier for ‘Preserving: Stories’

Queensland Premier‘s Young Publishers and Writers Awards: Two awards of $10,000 plus career development support to the value of $2,500 each – Allanah Hunt and Ellen Wengert

The University of Queensland Fiction Book Award – Prize: $15,000 – Song of the Crocodile by Nardi Simpson (Hachette Australia)

The University of Queensland Non-Fiction Book Award – Prize: $15,000 – Amnesia Road: Landscape, violence and memory by Luke Stegemann (New South Publishing)

Children’s Book Award: This award is supported by Susan Hocking and Ian Mackie, and their family, through the Hocking Mackie Trust at APS Foundation. Prize: $15,000 – Bindi written by Kirli Saunders and illustrated by Dub Leffler (Magabala Books)

Griffith University Young Adult Book Award: Prize: $15,000 – Metal Fish, Falling Snow by Cath Moore (Text Publishing)

University of Southern Queensland Steele Rudd Award for a Short Story Collection – Prize: $15,000 – Ordinary Matter by Laura Elvery (University of Queensland Press)

Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection: Prize: $15,000 – Terminally Poetic by Ouyang Yu (Ginninderra Press)

David Unaipon Award for an Emerging Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander writer: Prize: $15,000, plus publication with University of Queensland Press – Ngankiburka-mekauwe (Senior Woman of Water) Georgina Williams for ‘Mekauwe=Tears Volume #1 Poems (Notes For Song) 1970-2020’

Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer – Prize: $15,000, plus publication with University of Queensland Press – Siang Lu, ‘The Whitewash’

The Courier-Mail People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award: Awarded to an outstanding book by a Queensland author, taken from eligible books entered in the Fiction and Nonfiction categories. The winner of this award was determined by public vote.

Prize: $10,000 – Mary’s Last Dance: The untold story of the wife of Mao’s Last Dancer by Mary Li (Penguin Random House)

slq.qld.gov.au