2025 Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize longlist announced
Australian Book Review has announced the longlist for the 2025 Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize.
The longlisted works are:
- ‘A Good Clean Death’ by Lachlan Alexander (Vic)
- ‘Alone’ by Lorraine Carmody (NZ)
- ‘Inflatable World’ by Catherine Chidgey (NZ)
- ‘The Plain’ by Sarah Day (Tas)
- ‘Limerence’ by Rachael Guy (Vic)
- ‘List Before Sertraline’ by Sharmila Jayasinghe (NSW)
- ‘Live Feed’ by Anthony Lawrence (Qld)
- ‘Work on Your Personality’ by Holly Pekowsky (US)
- ‘Pterosaur’ by Spencer Scholz (SA)
- ‘Shelling’ by Tara Sharman (Vic)
- ‘Sediment’ by Tracey Slaughter (NZ).
This is the 16th time this prize has run, and the total prize pool is $12,500.
Judges Julie Janson, John Kinsella and Maria Takolander said, ‘The 2025 Jolley Prize longlist was one of the strongest any of us have encountered in a short story prize. There was a marked inclination to narrative innovation. Childhood was an ever-present concern and motif, and familial situations were scrutinised, valorised, and forensically picked apart. The traumas of dealing with the mental health system/s and tensions between isolation and social immersion were other constant themes.’
The winner will be announced in August.
Last year’s prize was awarded to New York–based writer Jill Van Epps for her story ‘Pornwald’.
More information about the prize can be found on the ABR website.
Category: Awards Local news
