‘Love & Virtue’ wins ABIA book of the year 2022
The winners of the 2022 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) have been announced.
Diana Reid’s debut novel Love & Virtue took out the overall ABIA book of the year as well as literary fiction book of the year. Written in 2020 just after Reid graduated university, the campus novel follows the relationship between two young women at an elite residential college and, according to the author, ‘the characters are very much the cumulation of years of observations of campus culture and a reflection of my generation’.
Love & Virtue won the 2021 MUD Literary Prize and was shortlisted for the Indie Book Award for debut fiction and the Booksellers’ Choice fiction book of the year award. Reid was also named a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist for 2022.
The ABIA winners in each category, including both the book awards and business awards, are:
ABIA book of the year
- Love & Virtue (Diana Reid, Ultimo)
General fiction book of the year
- Before You Knew My Name (Jacqueline Bublitz, A&U)
Literary fiction book of the year
- Love & Virtue (Diana Reid, Ultimo)
General nonfiction book of the year
- She’s on the Money (Victoria Devine, Penguin Life)
Biography book of the year
- My Adventurous Life (Dick Smith, A&U)
Book of the year for older children (ages 13+)
- The Prison Healer (Lynette Noni, Penguin)
Book of the year for younger children (ages 7–12)
- The First Scientists: Deadly inventions and innovations from Australia’s First Peoples (Corey Tutt, Hardie Grant Explore)
Children’s picture book of the year (ages 0–6)
- Somebody’s Land: Welcome to our Country (Adam Goodes & Ellie Laing, illus by David Hardy, A&U)
Illustrated book of the year
- Everything I Love to Cook (Neil Perry, Murdoch Books)
International book of the year
- The Storyteller (Dave Grohl, S&S)
Small publishers’ adult book of the year
- Dropbear (Evelyn Araluen, UQP)
Small publishers’ children’s book of the year
- The Edge of Thirteen (Nova Weetman, UQP)
Audiobook of the year
- Devotion (Hannah Kent, narrated by Emily Wheaton, Pan Macmillan)
The Matt Richell award for new writer of the year
- The Mother Wound (Amani Haydar, Macmillan)
Book retailer of the year
- Harry Hartog Bookseller
Bookshop of the year
- Avenue Bookstore Albert Park
Publisher of the year
- Penguin Random House Australia
Small publisher of the year
- University of Queensland Press
Rising Star award
- Emily Hart (Hardie Grant).
Chosen by the ABIA Academy, which comprises over 250 industry representatives, the winners were announced at the live-streamed ABIA awards ceremony at the International Convention Centre in Sydney on Thursday, 9 June. The winner of last year’s ABIA book of the year was Phosphorescence by Julia Baird (Fourth Estate).
To view a recording of the 2022 ABIA awards ceremony, visit the ABIA YouTube channel.
Category: Awards Local news
