NSW Literary Awards 2026 shortlists announced

The shortlists for the 2026 NSW Literary Awards have been announced.

The shortlisted works in each category are:

Christina Stead Prize for Fiction ($40,000)

• Cure (Katherine Brabon, Ultimo)
• Arborescence (Rhett David, Hachette)
• The Immigrants (Moreno Giovannoni, Black Inc.)
• The Passenger Seat (Vijay Khurana, Ultimo)
• Rapture (Emily Maguire, A&U)
• Elegy, Southwest (Madeleine Watts, Ultimo)

Douglas Stewart Prize for Nonfiction ($40,000)

• Always Home, Always Homesick (Hannah Kent, Picador)
• Find Me at the Jaffa Gate (Micaela Sahhar, NewSouth)
• Gather Up Your World in One Long Breath (S Shakthidharan, Powerhouse)
• 58 Facets (Marika Sosnowski, Melbourne University Publishing)
• Clever Men (Martin Thomas, A&U)
• Näku Dhäruk The Bark Petitions (Clare Wright, Text)

Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry ($30,000)

• A Sonogrammar (Kay L Are, Puncher & Wattmann)
• Year of the Ox (Andrew Brooks, Cordite)
• How to Emerge (Jill Jones, Vagabond)
• Bathypelagia (Debbie Lim, Cordite)
• The Hum Hearers (Shey Marque, UWA Publishing)
• Past & Parallel Lives (Kaya Ortiz, UWA Publishing)

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

• Little Bones (Sandy Bigna, UQP)
• Into the Bewilderness (Gus Gordon, Figment)
• The Year We Escaped (Suzanne Leal, HarperCollins)
• An Ant’s Guide to Being an Ant (Zoe Meagher & Julia Darling, Museums Victoria)
• A Gift from the Birds (Caroline Stills, Text)
• Gone (Michel Streich, T&H)

Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting ($30,000) 

• Song of First Desire (Andrew Bovell, Belvoir St Theatre/Currency Press)
• The Black Woman of Gippsland (Andrea James, Melbourne Theatre Company/Currency Press)
• Snakeface (Aliyah Knight, Fruit Box Theatre & Belvoir 25A)
• Destiny (Kirsty Marillier, Melbourne Theatre Company)
• The Wrong Gods (S Shakthidharan, Belvoir St Theatre/Melbourne Theatre Company/Currency Press)
• Troy (Tom Wright, Malthouse Theatre)

Highly commended

• Koreaboo (Michelle Lim Davidson, Griffin Theatre Company)
• Nucleus (Alana Valentine, Griffin Theatre Company/Currency Press)

Betty Roland Prize for Scriptwriting ($30,000)

• Mystery Road: Origin, Season 2, Episode 2 (Jada Alberts, Bunya Productions, ABC)
• The Correspondent (Peter Duncan, Pop Family Entertainment)
• Fisk, Season 3, Episode 3 “I’m the Fisk” (Penny Flanagan & Kitty Flanagan, ABC)
• Christy (Mirrah Foulkes & David Michôd, Black Bear)
• The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Episode 4 (Shaun Grant, Curio Pictures, Screen Australia, Amazon MGM Studios)
• Apple Cider Vinegar, Episode 1 (Samantha Strauss, See-Saw Films & Picking Scabs)

The Indigenous Writers’ Prize ($30,000)

• Murriyang: Song of Time (Stan Grant, Bundyi)
• On the Way to Yalaŋbara (Rärriwuy Gurramu Marika & Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, ILF)
• Apron-Sorrow / Sovereign-Tea (Natalie Harkin, Wakefield)
• Eclipse (Kirli Saunders, Joan)
• Long Yarn Short: We Are Still Here (Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts, UQP)
• Old Days Imanka nurna laakinha nitjaarta (Marjorie Nunga Williams, Magabala)

Multicultural NSW Award ($30,000) 

• Discipline (Randa Abdel-Fattah, UQP)
• Learned Behaviours (Zeynab Gamieldien, Ultimo)
• Murriyang: Song of Time (Stan Grant, Bundyi)
• How to Dodge Flying Sandals and Other Advice for Life (Daniel Nour, Affirm)
• Find Me at the Jaffa Gate (Micaela Sahhar, NewSouth)
• Gather Up Your World in One Long Breath (S Shakthidharan, Powerhouse)

Highly commended

• Shapeshifting (ed by Jeanine Leane & Ellen Van Neerven, UQP)
• It’s a Sign (Ela Pinar, Guest House Publishing)

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

• How to Be Normal (Ange Crawford, Walker)
• Snakeface (Aliyah Knight, Fruit Box Theatre & Belvoir 25A)
• An Ant’s Guide to Being an Ant (Zoe Meagher & Julia Darling, Museums Victoria)
• Wait Here (Lucy Nelson, Summit)
• A Savage Turn (Luke Patterson, Magabala)
• Find Me at the Jaffa Gate (Micaela Sahhar, NewSouth)*
• Long Yarn Short: We Are Still Here (Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts, UQP).

The NSW Literary Awards were first presented in 1979 by Premier Neville Wran and were later known as the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. From 2025, the awards have been renamed the NSW Literary Awards.

The University of Sydney People’s Choice Award ($10,000) is voted for from the shortlists for the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, Christina Stead Prize for Fiction and the Douglas Stewart Prize for Nonfiction.

In addition to the category prizes, the judges may choose from among the winners of each award category a Book of the Year, and the government may, at its discretion, make an additional payment of $10,000 prize money to the writer of the Book of the Year.

The winners will be announced on 18 May.

More information about the awards, and the judges’ comments, are available on the State Library of NSW website.

*Books shortlisted for the UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing are debuts selected from each category shortlist. Find Me at the Jaffa Gate (Micaela Sahhar, NewSouth) is nominated twice for the 2026 UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing as the nominated title from the Douglas Stewart Prize for Nonfiction category and the Multicultural NSW Award.

Category: Awards Local news