Brooke Maddison wins 2026 Penguin Literary Prize for “Driftwood”
Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) has announced that Driftwood by Brooke Maddison is the winner of the 2026 Penguin Literary Prize.
Chosen from a shortlist of 6, Driftwood “explores how traumatic events reverberate throughout families and questions how society expects people to deal with childhood abuse”.
Maddison said she was “honoured and still a little bit shocked” to have won the prize, which offers the winner $20,000 and the opportunity to publish with PRH.
“Thanks to the judges for this wonderful opportunity, and for seeing the potential in my manuscript. Writing can be such a solitary process, so I’m looking forward to working on Driftwood with the team at [PRH].”
The judges of this year’s award included PRH publisher Meredith Curnow, PRH senior editor Kathryn Knight, and booksellers Cecile Moylan (Dillons Adelaide), Sophie Wigan (Harry Hartog, Carindale) and Melanie Peacock (Constant Reader).
Curnow said of the judging process that “in the end we were unanimous” in choosing Driftwood.
Said Wigan: “Driftwood was a clear favourite of mine and, considering this was an early version of the manuscript, the quality and voice of Brooke’s writing is fantastic. The setting of Stradbroke Island really confirmed this as an Australian story. You could not only feel the beauty of the landscape, but the haunting of these spaces and how they can hold memory. When reading this, I knew who I could sell it to and that it needs to have a spot on our shelves.”
Launched in 2017, the Penguin Literary Prize was established to find, nurture and develop new Australian authors of literary fiction.
Previous winners of the Penguin Literary Prize include Hitch by Kathryn Hind, published June 2019; The Spill by Imbi Neeme, published June 2020; The Rabbits by Sophie Overett, published July 2021; Denizen by James McKenzie Watson, published in 2022; On a Bright Hillside in Paradise by Annette Higgs, published in 2023; Jade and Emerald by Michelle See-Tho, published in July 2024; The Occupation by Chloe Adams, published in July 2025; and last year’s winner Touch Grass by Mary Colussi.
Category: Awards Local news
