The 30th Annual ACT Arts Awards

We were delighted to attend the 30th Canberra Critics Circle (CCC) Arts Awards last night. The CCC is the only such group of critics in Australia that runs across all the major art forms, not just performing arts. The circle changes each year depending on who is writing or broadcasting on the arts in Canberra. Their aim is to provide a focal point for Canberra reviewers in print and electronic media through discussions and forums.

Held at Canberra Museum and Gallery, the annual awards celebrate the originality, excellence, energy and creativity in our region. The awards for literature this year were again well deserved.

Congratulations to all of the 2020 award recipients.

BIOGRAPHY

• Helen Ennis for her profoundly moving, and powerful biography of pioneering Australian photographer Olive Cotton. Ennis has woven her meticulous research into an absorbing narrative with spectacular skill. This biography is illuminating, highly accessible and beautifully written. A triumph. Olive Cotton: A Life in Photography.

  POETRY

• Subhash Jaireth for his innovative workshops at Poetry on the Move in October 2019 on the increasingly important skill of poetry translation seen in his book, Rain Clouds: Love songs of Meerabai, published by Recent Work Press in August 2020. A poet whose fluency in Russian and Indian languages has informed his work on both page and stage, Jaireth has shown the way to multilingual poets by highlighting the cultural contexts in which all poems are written.

  NONFICTION

• Patrick Mullins for The Trials of Portnoy, published by Scribe, which tells the story of how Penguin Australia fought to print Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint, successfully contesting Australia’s censorship laws. This shrewd book is an up-to-date look at the question of what literature can do.

  CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

• Krys Saclier for her children's picture book Vote 4 Me which delightfully explains the preferential voting system. Illustrated by political cartoonist, Cathy Wilcox, this book is just as illuminating for many adults as for younger readers. (collected by ACT Writers on her behalf)

  FICTION

• Felicity Volk for Desire Lines, a finely drawn and refreshingly epic love story, balancing international adventures with local intricacies. Memorable, magical, and very moving.

If you’re looking for some fantastic reads for the holiday season why not delve into some of our incredible local talent? Links below!