Catch and Kill is a finalist for the 2015 Walkley Awards.

It's part of the long-list for the book award, together with nine other books.

Those other books are:

• Quentin Beresford, The Rise and Fall of Gunns LTD,
• Ross Coulthart, Charles Bean,
• Andrew Fowler, The War on Journalism,
• Erik Jensen, Acute Misfortune: The Life and Death of Adam Cullen,
• Chip Le Grand, The Straight Dope,
• Debi Marshall, The Family Court Murders,
• Brenda Niall, Mannix,
• Geoffrey Robertson, An Inconvenient Genocide, and
• Sam Vincent, Blood and Guts.

That's pretty good company to be in, so I am rapt.

Given my career path as a unrequited journalist, it means a great deal to me to be a part of journalism's premier awards. I started out as a 17-year-old copy boy at the Sun News-pictorial on January 29, 1987, and now, all these years later, I have a walk-on part in the big show.

The lessons I learned in newspapers in Australia, then the Internet and TV in the United States, have stayed with me. In fact, you could say journalism and poetry have taught me everything I know.

And, no, I don't mind that the Walkleys misspelt my name in their media release that announced the finalists. As far as I'm concerned, they can call me anything they like.