Local author Yvette Walker has been awarded a Premier’s Book Award for her novel, ‘Letters to the End of Love’.

11 authors and two illustrators were recognised in the awards, and will each be awarded a share of $130 000 in prize money.

Premier Colin Barnett made a statement about the importance of literature in WA.

“The Premier’s Book Awards recognise literary excellence and I would like to congratulate all of this year’s winners,” he said.

“Literature is an important element of a culturally rich society. Reading and understanding the written word is not only empowering, it can be life changing. These awards help to encourage more West Australians to pick up a book.”

Walker was awarded the Western Australian Emerging Writers Award for her first published novel ‘Letters to the End of Love’. The novel tells the story of three different couples in three different time periods through their letters to one another.

The first are a painter and his wife coming to terms with his illness in Ireland in 1969, a retired Doctor writing to his male partner in the wake of the Second World War, and a lesbian couple negotiating distance in their relationship in Perth in the present day.

According to Culture and the Arts Minister John Day, there were 14 entrants into the Emerging Writers Category, indicative of the high level opf talent in the state.

“I would like to congratulate first-time published author, Yvette Walker, who was selected from a strong list of Western Australian writers for her book about love and loss,” Mr Day said.

Read our interview with Yvette Walker here.

Sophie Joske