Trent Dalton’s novel Boy Swallows Universe short-listed in NSW Premier’s Literary Awards

Success continues for Trent Dalton’s debut novel Boy Swallows Universe.

Trent Dalton’s novel has been short-listed for the NSW Premier’s Literary Award.

First-time novelist Trent Dalton had a triple taste of success this week. His novel, Boy Swallows Universe, was today short-listed for both the debut fiction and overall fiction prizes in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.

Yesterday, the book, published seven months ago, passed 100,000 in sales, a remarkable number for a debut Australian novel.

“I’m 10,000 feet over the moon,’’ Brisbane-based Dalton said yesterday. “I won’t be flying to Sydney for these awards, I’ll be floating.”

Dalton, whose day job is as a feature writer at The Australian, was one of two debut novelists short-listed for that award, worth $5000, and for the main fiction prize, worth $40,000. Robert Lukins is also in contention for The Everlasting Sunday.

Their rivals for the debut fiction prize are Robbie Arnott for Flames, Chris Hammer for Scrublands, Jamie Marina Lau for Pink Mountain on Locust Island and Tracy Sorensen for The Lucky Galah.

Boy Swallows Universe has passed 100,000 in sales.

The overall fiction prize demonstrates the high quality of contemporary Australian writing. Four-time Miles Franklin winner Tim Winton is there for The Shepherd’s Hut, as is Michelle de Kretser for The Life to Come, which won her a second Miles last year, and Nobel Prize contender Gerald Murnane for Border Districts. Completing the shortlist are the two debutantes and Stephanie Bishop for Man Out of Time.

Another Miles Franklin winner, Alexis Wright, is on the $40,000 nonfiction shortlist for her biography Tracker. The other short-listed works are Saga Land by Richard Fidler and Kári Gíslason, Deep Time Dreaming by Billy Griffiths, The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein, The Erratics by Vicki Laveau-Harvie and Axiomatic by Maria Tumarkin.

The poetry prize, worth $30,000, is between Judith Bishop (Interval), Michael Farrell (I Love Poetry), Penelope Layland (Things I’ve Thought To Tell You Since I Saw You Last), Philip Neilsen (Wildlife of Berlin) Mark Reid (Blindside) and veteran poet Chris Wallace-Crabbe (Rondo).

For all the shortlists, including for playwrighting and scriptwriting, go to www.sl.nsw.gov.au

NSW State Librarian John Vallance said the shortlists were “yet another shining example of the breadth and depth of literature available in this country”. The winners will be announced on April 29.

Stephen Romei was one of the three judges in the fiction categories of this year’s NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.