Queensland Literary Awards 2023 shortlists

The shortlists for the 2023 Queensland Literary Awards have been announced.

The shortlisted titles in each category are:

Queensland Premier’s Award for a Work of State Significance

• We Come with This Place (Debra Dank, Echo)
• The Bravest Word (Kate Foster, Walker Books)
• The Jaguar (Sarah Holland-Batt, UQP)
• Bone Memories (Sally Piper, UQP)
• Praiseworthy (Alexis Wright, Giramondo)

Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Awards

• Jasmin McGaughey
• Myles McGuire
• Jonathan O’Brien
• Alex Philp
• Sean West

Fiction Book Award

• Horse (Geraldine Brooks, Hachette)
• The Sun Walks Down (Fiona McFarlane, A&U)
• An Ungrateful Instrument (Michael Meehan, Transit Lounge)
• Bon and Lesley (Shaun Prescott, Giramondo)
• Praiseworthy (Alexis Wright, Giramondo)

Nonfiction Book Award

• We Come with This Place (Debra Dank, Echo)
• Humanity’s Moment (Joëlle Gergis, Black Inc.)
• Indelible City (Louisa Lim, Text)
• A Kind of Magic (Anna Spargo-Ryan, Ultimo)
• Our Members Be Unlimited (Sam Wallman, Scribe)

Children’s Book Award

• The Way of Dog (Zana Fraillon, UQP)
• Jigsaw: A puzzle in the post (Bob Graham, Walker Books)
• My Deadly Boots (Hakea Hustler & Carl Merrison, illus by Samantha Campbell, Lothian)
• Waiting for the Storks (Katrina Nannestad, ABC Books)
• Zadie Ma and the Dog Who Chased the Moon (Gabrielle Wang, Puffin)

Young Adult Book Award

• The Quiet and the Loud (Helena Fox, Pan)
• Completely Normal (and Other Lies) (Biffy James, HGCP)
• Unnecessary Drama (Nina Kenwood, Text)
• If You Could See the Sun (Ann Liang, HQ Young Adult)
• My Spare Heart (Jared Thomas, A&U)

Steele Rudd Award for a Short Story Collection

• An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life (Paul Dalla Rosa, A&U)
• Everything Feels Like the End of the World (Else Fitzgerald, A&U)
• Here Be Leviathans (Chris Flynn, UQP)
• Women I Know (Katerina Gibson, Scribner)

Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection

• Googlecholia (Michael Farrell, Giramondo)
• Harvest Lingo (Lionel Fogarty, Giramondo)
• The Drama Student (Autumn Royal, Giramondo)
• Fugitive (Simon Tedeschi, Upswell)
• Exactly As I Am (Rae White, UQP)

David Unaipon Award for an Emerging Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Writer

• ‘guniimara’ by Lulu Houdini
• ‘Always and Again’ by Brooke Scobie
• ‘To Give Them a Voice’ by Maria van Neerven

Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer

• ‘The See-Saw’ by Fernanda Dahlstrom
• ‘Treasure’ by Sandra Minke
• ‘First Name Second Name’ by Steve MinOn
• ‘Exchange Me’ by Margot Shave

People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award

• We Come with This Place (Debra Dank, Echo)
• The Whispering (Veronica Lando, HarperCollins)
• Homecoming (Kate Morton, A&U)
• Bone Memories (Sally Piper, UQP)
• The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding (Holly Ringland, Fourth Estate)
• The Bodyline Fix (Marion Stell, UQP)
• Cloud Land (Penny van Oosterzee, A&U)
• The God of No Good (Sita Walker, Ultimo)

Queensland Writers Fellowships
This category will have three winners but no shortlist.

The winners’ will be announced at ceremony hosted by Benjamin Law and livestreamed on State Library of Queensland (SLQ) website and Facebook Live from 7pm Wednesday, 6 September.  Voting for the people’s choice award closes 14 August.

For more information, see the SLQ website.

SLQ Young Writers Award

In related news, SLQ recently announced the winner of its Young Writers Award, which went to Grace Hammond for ‘Dog House’.

The 24-year-old writer from East Brisbane is awarded $2000 prize money, a membership to Queensland Writers Centre and is given the opportunity to work with Griffith Review to edit and publish their winning story.

Read Hammond’s winning entry here.

Category: Awards Local news