Garner was one of a dozen writers to share in the $210,000 prize pool.
In the non-fiction category, the Nettie Palmer Prize was awarded to Meredith Hooper for 'The Ferocious Summer: Palmer's Penguins and the Warming of Antarctica'. Each author receives $30,000 in prize money.
Victorian premier, John Brumby, said "the awards go from strength to strength and this year we are pleased to award, for the first time, the $15,000 Prize for Best Music Theatre Script". The inaugural award was presented to Anthony Crowley for 'The Wild Blue', which broke box office records at St Martin's Youth Theatre in 2005 and 2006.
Richard Flanagan received the John Curtin Prize for Journalism.
Flanagan had previously been awarded the Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction in 1998 and 2002.
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MISSY APPEARS ON LENO SHOW
The Australian singer Missy Higgins has appeared on the popular US TV program, the Tonight Show with Jay Leno in a campaign to crack the US music market. The Tonight Show performance was her fourth and comes after bookings on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Jimmy Kimmel Show.
The singer has been touring the US for six months and has received rave reviews for her single 'Where I Stood'. The Tonight Show with Jay Leno is seen in Australia on pay TV's The Comedy Channel.
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KYLIE TOURING HOME
Kylie Minogue has confirmed that she will bring her acclaimed KylieX2008 tour home to Australia in December.
More than half a million people have seen the two-and-a-half-hour show, during a 53-date European tour, which saw the show travel to 21 countries.
KylieX2008 features IMAX-sized video screen and floor screens, dazzling Jean Paul Gaultier costumes, and cost A$20 million to mount.
The Australian and New Zealand dates are December 8 - Vector Arena, Auckland; December 14 - Acer Arena, Sydney; and December 19 - Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne. Tickets are now on sale.
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YOUNG INDIGENOUS WRITERS AWARDS
Six Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students will have their books published internationally as winners of the Young Indigenous Writers Awards. The awards target youg writers in rural and regional Queensland, and were announced by the Minister for Education, Training and the Arts, Rod Welford, in Townsville.
The North Queensland regional award in the photographic category went to 'Me, Myself and My Precious Memories' by Kimberley Marshall, Healy State School, Mount Isa.
North Queensland regional award, remote category: 'A day in the life of Jasmine a Richmond girl', by Jasmine Carson, at Richmond State School.
Mackay-Whitsunday regional award, photographic category: 'This book is about my life - Me, Myself and I' by Ariel Horne, Clermont State School.
Mackay-Whitsunday regional award, illustrated category: 'About my family, friends and I by Joneece Bickey', Andergrove State School, Mackay.
Townsville District award illustrated category: 'I am' by Cyra Burns, Heatley State School, Heatley.
And finally, the Mount Isa District award illustrated category: 'The Sacred Rock' by Larrae Lucas, Sunset State School, Mount Isa.
The students' work will be published through Canadian company Trafford Publishing and available in mid-December on the Internet, and from major booksellers. The winners will have their own web page and their work will be archived in the National Archives of Canada.
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POPE DEEMED CRUCIFIED FROG BLASPHEMOUS
A sculpture portraying a crucified green frog, has been condemned as blasphemous by Pope Benedict.
The wooden sculpture by the late German artist Martin Kippenberger depicts a frog about 1.3m high nailed to brown cross and holding a beer mug in one outstretched hand and an egg in another.
Called 'Zuerst die Fuesse' (in German 'Feet First'), the work depicts the frog wearing a green loin cloth and nailed through the hands and feet in the manner of Jesus Christ. Its green tongue hangs out of its mouth.
The complaint was made by Franz Pahl, president of the regional government who said "Surely this is not a work of art but a blasphemy and a disgusting piece of trash that upsets many people". He was supported by a letter from the Vatican that said the work "wounds the religious sentiments of so many people who see in the cross the symbol of God's love".
Claudio Strinati, a superintendent for Rome's state museums, defended the work telling an Italian newspaper that "Art must always be free and the artist should not have any restrictions on freedom of expression"
Kippenberger's work has previously been shown at the Tate Modern and the Saatchi Gallery in London and at the Venice Biennale, and retrospectives are planned in Los Angeles and New York.
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