The Henson Case Makes PM's Shortlist

David Marr's excellent little paper back The Henson Case was today shortlisted on the Prime Minister's Literary Awards.

It's an extraordinary thing because if Kevin Rudd hadn't blurted out his presumptious little comment about Bill Henson's art works on morning television, there probably wouldn't have been such a storm in a tea-cup.

And there probably wouldn't be a book.

"I find them absolutely revolting," Rudd said.

Fifteen months later he's short-listed a book with a artistic photo of a young girl on the cover. Maybe Kevin 07 has come around...

In an almost off-handish way, Arts Minister Garrett says in a media release distributed today that "the 2009 Non-Fiction shortlist is a wide selection of works that cover biographies of key Australian figures, put Australian history under the microscope, and tackle Indigenous and contemporary issues.”

A contemporary issue. That's certainly one way to put it.

Let's go back to what felt like 1971...

http://artsjournalist.blogspot.com/2008/05/where-are-we-again.html

Marr's book is nominated alongside Van Diemen's Land, James Boyce; Doing Life: A Biography of Elizabeth Jolley, Brian Dibble; Gough Whitlam: A Moment in History, Jenny Hocking; The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island, Chloe Hooper; House of Exile: The Life and Times of Heinrich Mann and Nelly Kroeger-Mann, Evelyn Juers; Drawing the Global Colour Line, Marilyn Lake and Henry Reynolds; and American Journeys, Don Watson.