David Malouf, author of The Complete Stories, won new $110,000 Australia-Asia award. (Pantheon or Schocken Books/Jane Brown)David Malouf, author of The Complete Stories, won new $110,000 Australia-Asia award. (Pantheon or Schocken Books/Jane Brown)

The Complete Stories, a short story collection by Australian author David Malouf, has been awarded the first Australia-Asia Literary Award.

The $88,300 award, the richest literary prize in Australia, was created by the state government in Western Australia, and awards excellence in fiction about Australia or Asia by Australian or Asian writers.

Malouf was thrilled by his win, saying it was fitting that Western Australia had created a prize that looked at writing from Asia as well as Australia.

Malouf, 71, gathered stories from his earlier collections — Dream Stuff, Every Move You Make, Antipodes and Child's Play — into The Complete Stories.

"It's a wonderful piece of writing, a combination of decades of work, and it captures the human condition in such a deep and intense way," said Nury Vittachi, a member of the judging panel.

"His characters are very ordinary people and he captures the intense joys and sadness of ordinary life."

Vittachi said book juries are often drawn to novels, but this collection was a series of linked stories with the same characters turning up, making it seem very novel-like.

Also nominated for the award were:

  • The Lost Dog, by Michelle de Kretser.
  • Orpheus Lost by Janette Turner Hospital.
  • Blood Kin by Ceridwen Dovey.
  • The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid.

Malouf has written eight novels, six poetry collections and the librettos for three operas.

His 1993 book Remembering Babylon, set in the Australian outback, won the IMPAC Dublin Award and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. His latest novel, Ransom, will published next spring.

With files from the Australian Broadcasting Corp.