Queensland Literary Awards 2025 shortlists announced

The shortlists for the 2025 Queensland Literary Awards have been announced.

The shortlisted titles in each category are:

Queensland Premier’s Award for a Work of State Significance ($30,000)

• Australian Gospel: A Family Saga (Lech Blaine, Black Inc.)
• Black Witness (Amy McQuire, UQP)
• Everything is Water (Simon Cleary, UQP)
• Warra Warra Wai (Darren Rix and Craig Cormick, Scribner)
• Yanga Mother (Cheryl Leavy and Christopher Bassi, UQP)

Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Awards ($15,000)

(Two awards of $12,000 each, plus career development support to the value of $3,000 each)

• Alex Philp
• Olivia J Bennett
• Sean West
• Svetlana Sterlin

The University of Queensland Nonfiction Book Award ($15,000)

• Black Convicts (Santilla Chingaipe, Scribner)
• Murriyang: Song of time (Stan Grant, Bundyi)
• Näku Dhäruk: The Bark Petitions (Clare Wright, Text)
• The Season (Helen Garner, Text Publishing)
• Warra Warra Wai (Darren Rix and Craig Cormick, Scribner)

The University of Queensland Fiction Book Award ($15,000)

• Nightingale (Laura Elvery, UQP)
• Rapture (Emily Maguire, A&U)
• Wild Dark Shore (Charlotte McConaghy, Penguin)
• Little World (Josephine Rowe, Black Inc.)
• Out of the Woods (Gretchen Shirm, Transit Lounge)

Young Adult Book Award ($15,000)

• Don’t Let the Forest In (CG Drews, Hodder Children’s Books)
• Into the Mouth of the Wolf (Erin Gough, HGCP)
• Liar’s Test (Ambelin Kwaymullina, Text)
• My Brother, Finch (Kate Gordon, Riveted Press)
• Return to Sender (Lauren Draper, Macmillan)

Children’s Book Award ($15,000)

• All the Beautiful Things (Katrina Nannestad, ABC Books)
• Little Bones (Sandy Bigna, UQP)
• Spirit of the Crocodile (Aaron Fa’Aoso and Michelle Scott Tucker with Lyn White, A&U Children’s)
• Summer of Shipwrecks (Shivaun Plozza, UQP)
• Thunderhead (Sophie Beer, A&U Children’s)

Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection ($17,500)

• The Oblong Plot (Chris Andrews, Puncher & Wattmann)
• Tintinnabulum (Judith Beveridge, Giramondo)
• Kangaroo Unbound (Luke Johnson, Puncher & Wattmann)
• The Infant Vine (Isabella G Mead, UWAP)
• Mixed Business (Alan Wearne, Puncher & Wattmann)

David Unaipon Award for an Emerging Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Writer ($20,000)

• ‘Eskos’ by Vika Mana
• ‘Finding Billy Brown’ by ES Crismani
• ‘Neurodiverging Into [He]ARTS’ by BS Windon

Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer ($15,000)

• ‘The Burning Season’ by Karen Lee
• ‘Commonplaces’ by Gillian Hagenus
• ‘The Curse’ by Bronte Coates
• ‘Easy Living’ by Mindy Gill
• ‘The Lyrebirds’ by Dani Ringrose

The Courier-Mail People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award ($15,000)

• Annette Kellerman, Australian Mermaid (Grantlee Kieza, ABC Books)
• Bina: First Nations Languages, Old and New (Gari Tudor-Smith, Paul Williams, Felicity Meakins, La Trobe University Press in conjunction with Black Inc.)
• Black Convicts (Santilla Chingaipe, Scribner)
• Dirrayawadha (Anita Heiss, Simon & Schuster)
• Everything is Water (Simon Cleary, UQP)
• First Name Second Name (Steve MinOn, UQP)
• Nightingale (Laura Elvery, UQP)
• Red Dirt Blue Lights (Tess Merlin, AndAlso Books).

The shortlists were originally scheduled for release on 5 August, but were delayed after 12 of the 34 judges withdrew from the judging process, reported the Brisbane Times, in protest of the cancellation of KA Ren Wyld’s black&write! fellowship.

The announcement of winners, originally planned for 12 September, will now take place 26 September, reported the Brisbane Times.

More information is available on the State Library of Queensland’s website.

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