Congratulations to:

Melbourne novelist Sonya Hartnett, who was selected by the Swedish Arts Council to receive the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, named for the creator of the fictional children's character, Pippi Longstocking, a character beloved by young children throughout the world. The award, funded by the Swedish government, is worth 5 million kronor, about A$880,000.
(More info on the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award: www.alma.se.)
(Sonya Hartnett image source: www.alma.se.)

Melbourne writer Steven Carroll, who has won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for best book, in the South-East Asia and South Pacific division of the prize, for his novel 'The Time We Have Taken'. Sonya Hartnett was also a finalist for her novel, 'The Ghost's Child'. 'The Time We Have Taken' is the third in a sequence of novels that follows the fortunes of Carroll's protagonist Michael from his adolescence in the late 1950s.

The Commonwealth Writers' Prize for the best first book in our region went to Queenslander Karen Foxlee for 'The Anatomy of Wings' about the disintegration of a family after a suicide. Carroll and Foxlee will join the winners from the three other regions - Africa, Canada and the Caribbean, and Europe and South Asia - for the announcement of the overall winner on May 18, at the Franschhoek Literary Festival, in South Africa's Cape Provence.

(For a list of the 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize regional winners, visit: www.commonwealthfoundation.com/culturediversity/writersprize/2008/regionalwinners/.)
(Steven Carroll image source: www.slv.vic.gov.au.)
(Karen Foxlee image source: www.queenslandbooks.com.)
Carroll's novel has also been included on the long-list for this year's Miles Franklin Award. As well as Steven Carroll, on the long-list for this year's Miles Franklin award are Rodney Hall ('Love Without Hope'), Tom Keneally ('The Widow and Her Hero'), Christopher Koch ('The Memory Room'), Alex Miller ('Landscape of Farewell'), David Brooks ('The Fern Tattoo') and Gail Jones ('Sorry'). The winner of the $42,000 Miles Franklin prize will be announced on June 19.
(More info on the Miles Franklin Literary Award: www.trust.com.au/awards/miles_franklin/.)

• On a related matter, the National Association for the Visual Arts is looking to fill the position of Art Code Manager, to bring the proposed Indigenous Australian Art-Commercial Code of Conduct into operation.

  The Indigenous Australian Art-Commercial Code of Conduct is a new national industry standard for commercial relationships between Indigenous visual artists and the marketplace, and the successful candidate for the job will manage the development and implementation of the code.

  The objectives of the code are to regulate trade in Indigenous artwork between artists, art centres, and dealers to ensure clarity and transparency of transactions and a fair return to the artist on each transaction. The code will also provide consumers with a means to check authenticity establishing an audit trail which demonstrated the provenance of an artwork, allowing ownership to be traced from artist to purchaser.

  The manager's position is funded as a designated Indigenous position and is located at the National Association for the Visual Arts office in Sydney. Closing date for applications is 14 April 2008.

  (For more information download the position description @: www.visualarts.net.au.)