Le wins NSW Literary Book of the Year Award

The winners of the 2025 NSW Literary Awards have been announced.

Nam Le’s poetry collection 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem (Scribner) won the overall $10,000 Book of the Year award, as well as the $30,000 Multicultural NSW award.

The winning titles in each category are:

Book of the Year ($10,000) 

• 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem (Nam Le, Scribner)

Christina Stead Prize for Fiction ($40,000)

• Highway 13 (Fiona McFarlane, A&U)

Multicultural NSW Award ($30,000) 

• 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem (Nam Le, Scribner)

Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-fiction ($40,000)

• Deep Water (James Bradley, Hamish Hamilton)

Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry ($30,000)

• rock flight (Hasib Hourani, Giramondo)

Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children’s Literature ($30,000) 

• Silver Linings (Katrina Nannestad, ABC Books)

Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature ($30,000)

• Anomaly (Emma Lord, Affirm Kids)

Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting ($30,000)

• Three Magpies Perched in a Tree (Glenn Shea, Currency Press/La Mama)

Betty Roland Prize for Scriptwriting ($30,000)

• Inside (Charles Williams, Simpatico Films, Macgowan Films & Never Sleep Pictures)

Indigenous Writers’ Prize ($30,000)

• When the World Was Soft (Juluwarlu Group Aboriginal Corporation, A&U)

Translation Prize ($30,000)

• The Trial of Anna Thalberg (Eduardo Sangarcía, trans by Elizabeth Bryer, Restless Books)

UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing ($10,000) 

• Jilya (Tracy Westerman, UQP)

University of Sydney People’s Choice Award ($10,000)  

• The Lasting Harm (Lucia Osborne-Crowley, A&U)

Special Award ($10,000)

• Liminal.

The winners were chosen from shortlists announced in April. The NSW Literary Awards have been running for over 40 years; and the 2025 winners will take home a combined total of $360,000 in prize money.

Senior judge Bernadette Brennan said: ‘The judges for this year’s awards were impressed by the fearless integrity of these Australian writers. Through rigorous research, lived experience and informed imagination, they have found ways to examine difficult truths and to champion fearlessly stories that need to be heard. These winners, chosen from 733 entries, demonstrate the power, importance and readiness of Australian literary voices to engage with the beauty and violence of our world.’

Last year’s winners included Ali Cobby Eckermann whose verse novel She Is the Earth won the overall $10,000 Book of the Year award and the $30,000 Indigenous Writers’ Prize.

More details are available on the State Library of NSW website.

Category: Awards Local news