Nam LE triumphs again!

AUSTRALIAN Nam Le’s début collection of short stories, The Boat, has triumphed, again, over the cream of Australia’s novelists to win the 2009 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction. The fiction shortlist includes such firm favourites as Murray Bail, Geraldine Brooks, Richard Flanagan, Peter Goldsworthy and Joan London.

The Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction at A$100,000 is Australia’s richest literary award for fiction. It was established by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in 2008 to celebrate the contribution of Australian literature to the nation’s cultural and intellectual life. Le is the second début author to win the fiction award, after Steven Conte’s first novel, The Zookeeper’s War, won the inaugural award in 2008.

The Boat also won the Dylan Thomas Prize in 2008.