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Au wins 2023 Victorian Prize for Literature at VPLAs

2 February 2023   Books+Publishing
@booksandpublishing

Jessica Au has won Australia’s single richest literary prize, the $100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature, for her novel Cold Enough for Snow (Giramondo), at this year’s Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards (VPLAs).

The novel, about a mother and daughter travelling in Japan, also won the $25,000 fiction category.

The award judges said Au’s work ‘opened up new horizons for Australian literature’ and commended the author for her ‘masterful writing style and the way the novel straddles present and past’.

The winners in each category are:

Victorian Prize for Literature ($100,000)

Fiction ($25,000)

Nonfiction ($25,000)

Indigenous writing ($25,000)

Writing for young adults ($25,000)

  • We Who Hunt the Hollow (Kate Murray, HGCP)

Poetry ($25,000)

  • At the Altar of Touch (Gavin Yuan Gao, UQP)

Drama ($25,000)

  • The Return (John Harvey, Malthouse Theatre)

Unpublished manuscript ($15,000)

  • ‘One Divine Night’ by Mick Cummins

People’s choice ($2000)

  • Astronomy: Sky Country (Karlie Noon & Krystal De Napoli, Thames & Hudson).

Chosen from shortlists announced late last year, the winners were announced at an awards ceremony in Melbourne on 2 February. Of the eight winning works, five are debuts, including Lystra Rose’s YA novel The Upwelling, which was a recipient of a 2018 black&write! fellowship.

The winner of last year’s Victorian Prize for Literature was Veronica Gorrie, for her memoir Black and Blue: A memoir of racism and resilience (Scribe). The newly added children’s literature award will be presented for the first time as part of the 2024 VPLAs.

For more information about the awards, visit the Wheeler Centre website.

 

Category: Awards Local news