NT Literary Awards 2026 shortlists announced

The shortlists for the 2026 NT Literary Awards have been announced.

The shortlisted works in each category, chosen from 265 entries, are:

Brown’s Mart Theatre Award

• “Lure” (Ryanna Clayton)
• “Finding Magnus” (William Pyke).

CDU Creative Nonfiction Award

• “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Park” (Roland Bull)
• “Looking Back on Sumner Locke Elliott’s Rusty Bugles” (Kathie Rea)
• “That Old Gramophone” (Linda Wells).

CDU Essay Award

• “The Love Story of Mary ‘Gladys’ Namagu and Michael ‘Mick’ Daly” (Dean David Mobbs).

Flash Fiction Award

• “Spinifex Saviours” (Mark Ames)
• “The Lamentations of Whales” (Eric Daams)
• “I Won the Lottery” (Cristhian Jara Pisco)
• “Keep Up” (Yvette Wajon).

Kath Manzie Youth Award

• “The Diary of Leukemia” (Erin Simmons)
• “The Tale of Mr. Gibbs” (Halle Wamara).

NT Writers’ Centre Poetry Award

• “Vicissitudes” (Vamshika Bakshi)
• “Not Black or White” (Sophie Benkemoun)
• “The Waiting Game” (Diane Brodie)
• “October Morning Light” (Shanshan Meng)
• “Guria in Me” (Emma Trenorden)
• “Two Calendars, One Heart, One Land” (Stephen Van Der Mark).

Zip Print Short Story Award

• “Brakes” (Sophie Collins)
• “OmegaBot” (Eric Daams)
• “Her Mind, His Life and Their Fake Smiles” (Siobhan Hunter)
• “The Things We Measure” (Rosie Wild).

Established in 1984 by English lecturer and literary editor of the Darwin Community College journal, David Headon, the awards have been administered by the Library & Archives NT (LANT) since 2012.

The winners will be announced on 23 September at the NT Writing Awards, an event combining the winner announcements for the NT History Book Award, the NT Literary Awards and the NT Book Awards, to be held in Garramilla/Darwin and Mparntwe/Alice Springs, and live streamed.

More information about the NT Literary Awards is available on the LANT website.

Category: Awards Local news