Australian author and illustrator Shaun Tan is one of 7 Australians nominated for an Oscar overnight. Tan’s nomination is for the film The Lost Thing in the category of best animated short film. Tan co-directed the short with Andrew Ruhemann. Although he hardly needs an introduction, here’s one anyway.

Others in the list of Australians shortlisted for honours include Jacki Weaver for her portrayal…

Bob Franklin has taken out the Shadows Award for Long Fiction for his novel, Under Stones, published by Affirm Press. The Awards are administered by the Australian Horror Writers Association.

Literary journal The Lifted Brow has taken out the ‘Read’ category of the Thousands Awards. The journal “infallibly combines discerning journalism with short fiction, poetry, music and art”, according to the Thousands website.

Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu announced the long shortlist for the 2011 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, which make up the first Premier’s 21. The premier noted the work of the judges, who had the unenviable task of whittling 308 entries down into the final 21. Congratulations to all 308 authors, and especially to the 21 shortlisted writers.

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Bookseller magazine has announced the shortlist for its Diagram Prize. The award celebrates oddness in book titles. In culling the long-list of 66 entrants into a shortlist of half-a-dozen, judges gave preference to titles that they deemed accidentally - rather than deliberately - odd.

Early favouritism is with Managing a Dental Practice the Genghis Khan Way, although Joel Silverman’s What Colour is Your…

Congratulations to Fiona McGregor, whose third novel Indelible Ink was announced winner of The Age Book of the Year Award last night at the opening of the Melbourne Writers Festival. Indelible Ink also won the fiction category, while Jim Davidson’s biography of historian Keith Hancock took out the gong in the non-fiction category and John Tranter won the poetry award for Starlight: 150 Poems…

Publishing group The Thousands is running an online program “that recognises and rewards local achievements”. Nominees for the Thousands Awards have been published, and though the nominees for the ‘Read’ category are all worthy of the $1000 prize, readers can vote for their favourite. The nominees are literary journal The Lifted Brow, independent publishers Small House Books and Rainoff Books, spoken word event…