Anderson wins 2025 Nakata Brophy Prize for Young Indigenous Writers

Susie Anderson has won the 2025 Nakata Brophy Prize for Young Indigenous Writers for her short story ‘The Claimant’.

Presented by Overland, the award offers a $5000 cash prize and an optional writing residency at Trinity College, in the University of Melbourne. ‘The Claimant’ will also be published in a forthcoming issue of Overland.

Anderson is a Wergaia/Wemba Wemba writer of prose and poetry from regional Victoria. Her debut poetry collection, the body country (Hachette, 2023), was shortlisted for both the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards and the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards in 2024. The manuscript of the collection was the winner of a black&write! fellowship. Anderson is currently a 2025 Sydney Review of Books emerging critic.

Of Anderson’s winning piece, judges Mykaela Saunders and Evelyn Araluen said, ‘In this powerful work, Anderson weaves together multiple perspectives and points of vision: parabolic in shape, the story begins with an elder readying herself for an important meeting, then cuts to a white real estate developer reminiscing on his settler-colonial family history, then to the musings of a tree once chosen to give its skin for a canoe.

‘The story holds so much history expertly and challenges expectations of resolution or closure. This piece feels like it’s brimming with potential for each thread to be followed and explored in great depth. The writing is so sharp, fresh and spectral – and fills us with excitement for Anderson’s future in prose.’

Overland also announced two runners-up: Kyrah Honner for ‘Country Keeps You’ and Isabella Eichler-Onus for ‘Pyrophyte’.

Anderson, Honner and Eichler-Onus were chosen from a shortlist announced earlier this month.

Established in 2014, the prize alternates between poetry and short fiction each year. This year’s prize was awarded to ‘the best short story by an Indigenous writer who is 35 years or younger’.

Last year’s winner was Yasmin Smith for her poem ‘Dawning in the Rivulet of My Father’s Mourning’.

More information about the prize is available on the Overland website.

Category: Awards Local news