ACT Literary Awards 2025 shortlist announced

MARION ACT has announced the shortlists for the 2025 ACT Literary Awards.

The shortlisted titles are:

Children’s literature shortlist (younger readers)

• Alphabetter (Maura Pierlot, illus by Jorge Garcia Redondo, Affirm Kids)
• Big, Big Love (Lisa Fuller, illus by Samantha Campbell, Magabala)
• Flora (Tania McCartney, NLA)
• Marvellous Miles (Sarah Watts, illus by Aleksandra Szmidt, Little Steps Publishing)
• One Little Dung Beetle (Rhiân Williams, illus by Heather Potter and Mark Johnson, Wild Dog)
• Sensational Australian Animals (Stephanie Owen Reeder, illus by Cher Hart, CSIRO)

Children’s literature shortlist (older readers)

• I’m Not Really Here (Gary Lonesborough, A&U Children’s)
• Spirit of the Warriors (James Knight, Crack-A-Story Publishing)
• That Book About Life Before Dinosaurs (David Conley)
• Tigg and the Bandicoot Bushranger (Jackie French, HarperCollins)
• The Unexpected Mess of it all (Gabrielle Tozer, HarperCollins)
• Tracks in the Mist: the Adamson Adventures 4 (Sandra Bennett, Rosella Ridge Books)

Fiction shortlist 

• Compassion (Julie Janson, Magabala)
• Pictures of You (Emma Grey, Penguin)
• The Sea Captain’s Wife (Jackie French, HQ)
• The Thinning (Inga Simpson, Hachette)

Nonfiction shortlist 

• Australian Carillionists (Melissa Bray)
• Lebanon Days (Theodore Ell, Atlantic)
• Max Dupain: A Portrait (Helen Ennis, Fourth Estate)
• Slutdom (Hilary Caldwell, UQP)
• An Unexpected Life (Vesna Cvjetićanin)
• Warra Warra Wai (Darren Rix and Craig Cormick, Scribner)
• Warrior Soldier Brigand (Ben Wadham and James Connor, Melbourne University Publishing)

Poetry shortlist

• Makarra (Barrina South, Recent Work Press)
• Equations of Breath (Lucy Alexander, Recent Work Press)
• The Daily News (Jen Webb, Recent Work Press)
• Refugia (Elfie Shiosaki, Magabala).

The 2025 judges are Jacqueline de Rose-Ahern and Will Kostakis (children’s literature), Adrian Caesar and Ayesha Inoon (fiction), Katrina Marson and Shannyn Palmer (nonfiction), and Paul Hetherington and Maya Hodge (poetry).

The winners for each category will be announced 3 July 2025 and each will receive $500 in prize money.

More information about the awards is available on the MARION ACT website.

Category: Awards Local news