Dorothy Hewett Award 2026 shortlist announced

UWA Publishing has announced the shortlist for the 2026 Dorothy Hewett Award.

The shortlisted works, chosen from more than 280 entries, are:

• “Shedding Skin” by Faiza Bokhari (WA)
• “Snow” by Chris Brophy (VIC)
• “A Bird is a Small God” by Alisha Brown (NSW)
• “Another Sky” by Christy Collins (VIC)
• “being made of stone” by Kimberley Starr (VIC)
• “Milk Fever” by Coby Sullivan (QLD).

The judges for the 2026 award are UWA Chair of Australian Literature Tony Hughes-d’Aeth, Night Parrot Press co-publisher Linda Martin, Zeitgeist Agency literary agent Samuel Bernard, and UWA Publishing publisher Kate Pickard.

The winner of the 2025 Dorothy Hewett Award was Mohammed Massoud Morsi for The Hair of the Pigeon.

Past winners include Kaya Ortiz for Past and Parallel Lives; Kirsty Iltners for Depth of Field; and Brendan Ritchie for Eta Draconis. The inaugural winner, Extinctions by Josephine Wilson, went on to win the Miles Franklin Literary Award.

The Dorothy Hewett Award is open to Australian writers of fiction, narrative nonfiction and poetry.

The winner will be announced in August and will receive $10,000 and a publishing contract with UWA Publishing.

Category: Awards