Π.O. and Yumna Kassab have been shortlisted for the 2020 Queensland Literary Awards

We are pleased to announce that Yumna Kassab has been shortlisted for the Steele Rudd Award for her short story collection, The House of Youssef, and Π.O. has been shortlisted for the Judith Wright Calanthe award for his epic poetry collection, Heide.

The judges on The House of Youssef:

The stories in The House of Youssef portray – with deceptive simplicity – the daily lives of Lebanese migrants in Western Sydney. With a minimalism that is at times brutal and always revealing, Yumna Kassab uncovers a world that is vibrant, difficult, loving – full of cultural negotiations, anxieties of displacement, and hope for the future.

The judges on Heide:

This is an epic work of art history and so much more. Frequently hilarious and always engaging, it tells the story of the development of settler art in Melbourne from its Eurocentric colonial origins through to the birth of something that might be considered Australian. Heide a major work that continually calls into attention the myth-making impulse on which so much history is built.