Earlier this year the Small Press Network announced a new, annual award to be known as the Small Press Network Book of the Year Award. This year’s inaugural shortlist has just been revealed.

The 2020 shortlist includes…

• blur by the by Cham Zhi Yi
• Forgotten Corners: Essays in Search of an Island’s Soul by Pete Hay
• The Subjects by Sarah Hopkins
• When One Person Dies The Whole World Is Over by Mandy Ord
• Nganajungu Yagu by Charmaine Papertalk Green
• Lucky Ticket by Joey Bui
• Cooee Mittigar: A Story on Darug Songlines by Jasmine Seymour & Leanne Mulgo Watson

The judges commented: ‘An extraordinary range of titles was submitted for the inaugural Small Press Network Book of the Year Award … Our shortlist could not take in every book we admired. But we’re proud of the list we settled on: poetic and political essays from a much-loved Tasmanian writer; a graphic novel that transforms the quotidian into the profound; short stories that turn a keen eye on life in Vietnam and the Vietnamese diaspora; poetry about food, love and identity; a gorgeously illustrated children’s guide to the landscapes and lives of Darug country; a complex, compelling novel about a mysterious reform school; and a cycle of poems following a woman’s relationship with her mother and language..’

The winner of the Small Press Network Book of the Year Award will be announced in December.