Award winners to look out for
20 March 2024
Illustrated books Open Your Heart to Country by Dharug author/illustrator Jasmine Seymour (Magabala) won in the children’s category of the 2023 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards (PMLAs) and is described by Books+Publishing...
Chandran wins Miles Franklin, Wright honoured for Lifetime Achievement
3 October 2023
Tamil Australian author Shankari Chandran won Australia’s most prestigious literary prize, the $60,000 Miles Franklin Literary Award, for her third novel, Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens (Ultimo). The book explores...
De Kretser, Parker-Chan internationally recognised
6 April 2023
Australian authors recognised recently with international awards include Michelle de Kretser, who won the fiction category of the 2023 Rathbones Folio Prize for her novel Scary Monsters (A&U), and Shelley...
Award winners
21 February 2023
Lystra Rose has won the $25,000 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing for her YA debut novel The Upwelling (Hachette Australia), while We Who Hunt the Hollow (Kate Murray, HGCP)...
Down wins Miles Franklin for ‘Bodies of Light’
13 October 2022
Melbourne writer Jennifer Down took out Australia’s most prestigious literary prize, the $60,000 Miles Franklin Literary Award, for her second novel Bodies of Light (Text). The winner was chosen from...
Debut memoir wins Australia’s richest literary prize
1 April 2022
In February this year, first-time author Veronica Gorrie took home Australia’s richest literary prize, the $100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature at the 2022 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, for her memoir...
Two Walker titles jointly win Prime Minister’s children’s literature prize
16 March 2022
Two titles published by Walker Books Australia jointly won the children’s book category of the prestigious and valuable Prime Minister’s Literary Awards in 2021: middle-grade graphic novel Fly on the...
Lohrey wins Miles Franklin Literary Award for seventh novel
29 September 2021
Amanda Lohrey has won Australia’s prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award for her seventh novel The Labyrinth (Text), ‘the work of a major novelist at the peak of her powers’, according...
‘Explosive’ poetry collection scoops major lit awards
9 June 2021
Throat, the second poetry collection by First Nations writer Ellen van Neerven (UQP), has been named book of the year at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, also picking up prizes...
Bookshop-set middle-grade adventure bags multiple prizes
26 May 2021
The Grandest Bookshop in the World by Amelia Mellor (Affirm Press)—a middle-grade adventure novel set in Melbourne’s historic Cole’s Book Arcade—has picked up three major book prizes in recent months:...
Pandemic novel wins Australia’s richest literary prize
17 March 2021
Laura Jean McKay has won Australia’s richest literary prize, the Victorian Prize for Literature, for her second book The Animals in That Country (Scribe)—‘a literary spec-fic novel that imagines a...
Three Oz titles scoop major awards
30 September 2020
Three Australian books have collected several prestigious awards and shortlistings over the past six months: Tara June Winch’s novel The Yield (Hamish Hamilton), ‘a powerful reclaiming of Indigenous language, storytelling...
Magical middle-grade novel wins major prize
19 March 2020
Jessica Townsend’s 2017 debut children’s novel Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow (Hachette Australia)—the first in a magical series for younger readers—has won the overall award at the biennial Adelaide...
Christos Tsiolkas’ ‘Damascus’ wins best fiction at VPLAs
11 February 2020
The winners of the prestigious Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards have been announced. Christos Tsiolkas’ Damascus (Allen & Unwin) picked up the prize for fiction, Sea People: The puzzle of Polynesia...
‘The Glad Shout’ wins Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction
14 November 2019
Alice Robinson’s second novel The Glad Shout (Affirm Press)—‘an exhilarating novel that raises urgent questions about how we will experience the near future of our climate crisis’—has won the Readings...
‘Too Much Lip’ shortlisted for PM and Qld literary awards
10 October 2019
The shortlists for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards and the Queensland Literary Awards have been announced, with Melissa Lucashenko’s Miles Franklin Award-winning novel Too Much Lip in the running for both. Also shortlisted for both...
Multiple wins for McTiernan, Harper and Lee
12 September 2019
Australian women crime writers have cleaned up at the Ned Kelly Awards for Australian crime writing and—predictably—the Davitt Awards for crime books by Australian women. The multiple winners were Dervla...
‘Too Much Lip’ wins Miles Franklin Literary Award
9 August 2019
Melissa Lucashenko has won the Miles Franklin Literary Award for her darkly funny novel Too Much Lip (UQP), about a woman who returns to her hometown after an armed robbery...
Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist announced
11 July 2019
Five titles have been shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award ahead of the winner’s announcement on 30 July. They are: The Lebs (Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Hachette), A Sand Archive (Gregory Day, Picador), A Stolen Season (Rodney...
Miles Franklin Literary Award longlist announced
14 June 2019
The longlist for the prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award has been announced. The longlisted titles are: The Lebs (Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Hachette), Flames (Robbie Arnott, Text), Boy Swallows Universe (Trent Dalton, Fourth Estate), A...
‘Boy Swallows Universe’ wins book of the year at ABIAs
7 May 2019
Trent Dalton’s multi-award-winning debut novel Boy Swallows Universe (Fourth Estate) has been named Book of the Year at the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs). Dalton’s coming-of-age tale, set against the...
‘The Erratics’ wins Stella Prize
11 April 2019
Vicki Laveau-Harvie has won Australia’s prestigious Stella Prize for women writers for her memoir The Erratics (Fourth Estate), which tells the story of an estranged daughter who journeys home to...
Helen Garner wins Lifetime Achievement award
15 March 2019
Helen Garner has won the Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature. Garner is the author of more than 14 books of fiction and nonfiction, including Monkey Grip, The...
Asylum seeker wins major literary award
14 February 2019
Writer, journalist and Iranian refugee Behrouz Boochani, currently detained on Manus Island as part of the Australian government’s offshore detention policy for asylum seekers, has won the $100,000 Victorian Prize...
Samuel Wagan Watson wins Patrick White Literary Award
15 November 2018
Poet, essayist, scriptwriter and performer Samuel Wagan Watson has won the Patrick White Literary Award, which is traditionally presented to authors who ‘have made a significant but inadequately recognised contribution...
Finalists announced for triennial Melbourne Prize for Literature
11 October 2018
Five Australian authors—Tony Birch, Gideon Haigh, Alison Lester, Christos Tsiolkas and Alexis Wright—have been selected as finalists for the Melbourne Prize for Literature, which is awarded triennially to an author...
De Kretser wins second Miles Franklin Award
13 September 2018
Michelle de Kretser has won Australia’s prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award for the second time for her novel The Life to Come (Allen & Unwin) after previously winning in 2013...
Viskic wins top crime-fiction award
14 August 2018
Emma Viskic’s And Fire Came Down (Echo Publishing) has been named best adult crime novel at this year’s Davitt Awards, which are presented to the best crime books by Australian...
Miles Franklin Award shortlist announced
12 July 2018
The shortlist has been announced for the Miles Franklin Literary Award—one of Australia’s most influential literary prizes. The judges have described the shortlist as ‘diverse and intelligent’. Alexis Wright’s biography...
Aussie crime wave
15 June 2018
No doubt you’ve heard of Jane Harper’s debut bestselling crime novel The Dry (Pan). It has added the accolade of crime and thriller ‘book of the year’ at the recent British Book...
