Suzanne Leal

And I must give it to my fellow judges.

They're the ones that are reading all the books from the beginning.

I come in when there's a conflict or I come in when the book of the year has to be chosen.

So whilst my job is more administrative and overseeing and checking the judges are going well, I really think the accolades need to go to all the judges on the ground who are doing the readings.

The Book of Dirt is Bram Press's debut book.

It's an interesting combination of fiction and non-fiction, although it is sold as a novel.

And it's based on his grandparent's story, which is a Holocaust story.

He's Jewish.

And much of the action takes place in the ghetto outside of Prague called Theresienstadt.

He won the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction.

He won the New Fiction Writing Prize, the UTS Glenda Adams Award for Writing.

And he also won the People's Choice Award.

So he was a very pleased and slightly overwhelmed writer, I think.

Yeah.

Yeah, look, I think however you get it.

I think Kim Scott also did exceptionally well at the awards.

He won the Indigenous Writers Award for Taboo, but also Book of the Year.

And I'd commend both books to you.

I know she's been described as the new Scout Finch and I think that's a big call and it's a big call to make early, but I think there is some truth in that.

What I liked about Olive is her honesty and what I liked about the writing generally was how well Jenny Ackland got into the head of this 12-year-old who's got more confidence than she does knowledge and who has this slightly gnarky relationship with her best friend, Peter.