ABIA 2022 longlists announced

The longlists for the 2022 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) have been announced.

The titles longlisted in each category are:

General fiction book of the year

• After Story (Larissa Behrendt, UQP)
• The Younger Wife (Sally Hepworth, Macmillan)
• Apples Never Fall (Liane Moriarty, Macmillan)
• Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray (Anita Heiss, S&S)
• Treasure and Dirt (Chris Hammer, A&U)
• Before You Knew My Name (Jacqueline Bublitz, A&U)
• The Way It Is Now (Garry Disher, Text)
• When Things are Alive They Hum (Hannah Bent, Ultimo)

Literary fiction book of the year

• One Hundred Days (Alice Pung, Black Inc.)
• Once There Were Wolves (Charlotte McConaghy, Hamish Hamilton)
• Devotion (Hannah Kent, Picador)
• Seven and a Half (Christos Tsiolkas, A&U)
• Love Objects (Emily Maguire, A&U)
• Wild Abandon (Emily Bitto, A&U)
• The Truth About Her (Jacqueline Maley, Fourth Estate)
• Love & Virtue (Diana Reid, Ultimo)

General nonfiction book of the year

• Another Day in the Colony (Chelsea Watego, UQP)
• Toxic: The rotting underbelly of the Tasmanian salmon industry (Richard Flanagan, Penguin)
• She’s on the Money (Victoria Devine, Penguin Life)
• Heartsick: Three stories about love and loss, and what happens in between (Jessie Stephens, Macmillan)
• So You Think You Know What’s Good for You? (Norman Swan, Hachette)
• Who Gets to Be Smart (Bri Lee, A&U)
• Love Stories (Trent Dalton, Fourth Estate)
• My Year of Living Vulnerably (Rick Morton, Fourth Estate)

Biography book of the year

• Emotional Female (Yumiko Kadota, Viking)
• The Mother Wound (Amani Haydar, Macmillan)
• Daring to Fly (Lisa Millar, Hachette)
• Turns Out, I’m Fine (Judith Lucy, Scribner)
• Power Play (Julia Banks, Hardie Grant)
• How We Love (Clementine Ford, A&U)
• It Wasn’t Meant to be Like This (Lisa Wilkinson, HarperCollins)
• My Adventurous Life (Dick Smith, A&U)
• How to End a Story: Diaries: 1995–1998 (Helen Garner, Text)

Book of the year for older children (ages 13+)

• The Prison Healer (Lynette Noni, Penguin)
• Anything but Fine (Tobias Madden, Penguin)
• Tell Me Why For Young Adults (Archie Roach, S&S)
• Dark Rise (C S Pacat, A&U)
• The Boy from the Mish (Gary Lonesborough, A&U)
• The Gaps (Leanne Hall, Text)
• If Not Us (Mark Smith, Text)
• Welcome to Consent (Yumi Stynes & Melissa Kang, HGCP)

Book of the year for younger children (ages 7­–12)

• My Brother Ben (Peter Carnavas, UQP)
• Exit Through the Gift Shop (Maryam Master, Pan)
• The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Peculiar Pairs in Nature (Sami Bayly, Lothian)
• Wandi (Favel Parrett, Hachette)
• The First Scientists: Deadly inventions and innovations from Australia’s First Peoples (Corey Tutt, Hardie Grant Explore)
• Heroes, Rebels and Innovators (Karen Wyld & Jaelyn Biumaiwai, Lothian)
• Dragon Skin (Karen Foxlee, A&U)
• Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief (Katrina Nannestad, ABC Books)

Children’s picture book of the year (ages 0–6) 

• The Tiny Explorers (Kat Macleod, T&H)
• Walk of the Whales (Nick Bland, HGCP)
• Day Break (Amy McQuire & Matt Chun, HGCP)
• Bedtime Sorted (Jimmy Rees, illus by Briony Stewart, Affirm)
• Winner Winner Bin Chicken Dinner (Kate and Joel Temple, illusby Ronojoy Ghosh, Scholastic)
• The Curiosities (Zana Fraillon & Phil Lesnie, Lothian)
• Somebody’s Land: Welcome to our Country (Adam Goodes & Ellie Laing, illus by David Hardy, A&U)
• Boss of Your Own Body (Byll and Beth Stephen, illus by Simon Howe, ABC Books)

Illustrated book of the year                                

• A Life in Pattern (Anna Spiro, T&H)
• Still Life (Amber Creswell Bell, T&H)
• Garden Like a Nonno (Jaclyn Crupi, Affirm)
• Death to Jar Sauce (Nat’s What I Reckon, Ebury)
• You’re Doing it Wrong: A History of bad and bonkers advice to women (Kaz Cooke, Viking)
• Christine Manfield’s Indian Cooking Class (Christine Manfield, S&S)
• Take One Fish: The new school of scale-to-tail cooking and eating (Josh Niland, Hardie Grant)
• Dear Son: Letters and reflections from First Nations fathers and sons (Thomas Mayor, Hardie Grant Explore)
• Everything I Love to Cook (Neil Perry, Murdoch Books)
• Costa’s World (Costa Georgiadis, ABC Books)

International book of the year

• These Precious Days (Ann Patchett, Bloomsbury)
• The Promise (Damon Galgut, Chatto & Windus)
• Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf love (Yotam Ottolenghi & Noor Murad, Ebury)
• The Magician (Colm Tóibín, Picador)
• The Storyteller (Dave Grohl, S&S)
• Beautiful World, Where Are You (Sally Rooney, Faber)
• Klara and the Sun (Kazuo Ishiguro, Faber)
• Still Life (Sarah Winman, Fourth Estate)

Small publishers’ adult book of the year

• The Stoning (Peter Papathanasiou, Transit Lounge)
• Wild Mushrooming: A guide for foragers (Alison Pouliot & Tom May, CSIRO)
• The Game: A portrait of Scott Morrison (Sean Kelly, Black Inc.)
• Dropbear (Evelyn Araluen, UQP)
• Caught in the Act (Shane Jenek, Pantera Press)
• Flight of the Budgerigar (Penny Olsen, NLA Publishing)
• Black and Blue: a memoir of racism and resilience (Veronica Gorrie, Scribe)
• The Shape of Sound (Fiona Murphy, Text)

Small publishers’ children’s book of the year

• The Edge of Thirteen (Nova Weetman, UQP)
• Wiradjuri Country (Larry Brandy, NLA Publishing)
• A Pair of Pears and an Orange (Anna McGregor, Scribble)
• Let’s Eat Weeds (Annie Raser-Rowland & Adam Grubb, illus by Evie Barrow, Scribble)
• Tomorrow is a Brand-New Day (Davina Bell, illus by Allison Colpoys, Scribble)
• Albert Namatjira (Vincent Namatjira, Magabala)
• The River (Sally Morgan, illus by Johnny Warrkatja Malibirr, Magabala)
• Kunyi (Kunyi June Anne McInerney, Magabala)

The Matt Richell award for new writer of the year

• Small Joys of Real Life (Allee Richards, Hachette)
• The First Scientists: Deadly inventions and innovations from Australia’s First Peoples (Corey Tutt, Hardie Grant Explore)
• New Animal (Ella Baxter, A&U)
• Before You Knew My Name (Jacqueline Bublitz, A&U)
• The Truth About Her (Jacqueline Maley, Fourth Estate)
• The Mother Wound (Amani Haydar, Macmillan)
• When Things are Alive They Hum (Hannah Bent, Ultimo)
• Love & Virtue (Diana Reid, Ultimo).

The ABIA longlists were selected by the ABIA Academy, which comprises over 250 industry representatives. The shortlists will be announced on 23 May, with the winners in each category, as well as the winners of the Lloyd O’Neill Hall of Fame Award, the Pixie O’Harris Award and the Rising Star Award, announced at the awards ceremony in Sydney on 9 June.

For more information about the awards and tickets to the ceremony, see the ABIA website.

Category: Awards Local news