Australian Book Design Awards 2025 longlists announced

Thursday, 6 March 2025 Books+Publishing

The longlists for the 2025 Australian Book Design Awards, presented by the Australian Book Designers Association (ABDA), have been announced.

The longlisted titles in the first three categories, and the emerging designer category, are:

Best designed commercial fiction cover

Cherrywood (Jock Serong, Fourth Estate), designed by Darren Holt
Down the Rabbit Hole (Shaeden Berry, Echo), designed by Sandy Cull
First Year (Kristina Ross, A&U), designed by Alissa Dinallo
The Glass House (Anne Buist & Graeme Simsion, Hachette), designed by Alex Ross
In The Margins (Gail Holmes, Ultimo), designed by Hazel Lam
Shadows of Winter Robins (Louise Wolhuter, Ultimo), designed by Amy Daoud
Skysong (CA Wright, Pantera), designed by Hazel Lam
Thanks For Having Me (Emma Darragh, A&U), designed by Alissa Dinallo
Things Will Calm Down Soon (Zoë Foster Blake, Atlantic), designed by Amy Daoud
To Sing of War (Catherine McKinnon, Fourth Estate), designed by Hazel Lam

Best designed literary fiction/poetry cover

The Great Undoing (Sharlene Allssopp, Ultimo), designed by George Saad
Juice (Tim Winton, Hamish Hamilton), designed by Adam Laszczuk
Kangaroo Stew (Zac James, Magabala), designed by Gene Eaton
A Language of Limbs (Dylin Hardcastle, Macmillan), designed by Hazel Lam
The Mark (Fríða Ísberg, Text), designed by Design by Committee
No Church in the Wild (Murray Middleton, Picador), designed by Alissa Dinallo
Rapture (Emily Maguire, A&U), designed by Sandy Cull
Shining Like the Sun (Stephen Orr, Wakefield), designed by Duncan Blachford
Theory & Practice (Michelle de Kretser, Text), designed by WH Chong
Tomorrow There Will Be Sun: A Hope Prize Anthology (various, S&S) designed by Alissa Dinallo

Best designed nonfiction cover

All I Ever Wanted Was To Be Hot (Lucinda Prince, Pantera), designed by Evi-O.Studio | Katherine Zhang
Barbara Tucker: The Art of Being (Hermina Burns, MUP), designed by Patricia Garner
Black Duck (Bruce Pascoe, with Lyn Harwood, Thames & Hudson), designed by Andy Warren
Essays that Changed Australia (Esther Anatolitis, MUP), designed by Stephen Banham
Madam (Antonia Murphy, S&S), designed by Alissa Dinallo
Max Dupain: A Portrait (Helen Ennis, Fourth Estate), designed by Sandy Cull
A Periodic Tale (Karl Kruszelnicki, ABC Books), designed by Design by Committee
The Pulling (Adele Dumont, Scribe), designed by Laura Thomas
Swimming Sydney: A Tale of 52 Swims (Chris Baker, NewSouth), designed by Mika Tabata
Three Wild Dogs and the Truth (Markus Zusak, Picador), designed by Daniel New
Twenty-Two Impressions (Jessica Friedmann, Scribe), designed by Elke Kramer & Allison Colpoys

Deb Brash emerging designer of the year

The longlists in all categories can be viewed on the ABDA website.

In their 73rd year, the awards celebrate the ‘most original, beautiful and inspiring books published in Australia in 2024’.

The winners will be announced on 23 May in Sydney.