ACT Literary Awards 2024 winners announced

The winners of the ACT Literary Awards, previously known as the ACT Notable Book Awards and presented by the Canberra writing organisation Marion, have been announced.

The 2024 winners are:

Fiction

• Winner (traditionally published): Girl in a Pink Dress (Kylie Needham, Hamish Hamilton)
• Winner (self-published): The Last Famine (Elisa Cristallo)

Nonfiction

• Winner (traditionally published): Bennelong & Phillip: A history unravelled (Kate Fullagar, Scribner)
• Winner (self-published): Kriegies: The Australian airmen of Stalag Luft III (Kristen Alexander)

Poetry

• The Moon the Bone: Selected poems 1986–2022 (Tim Metcalf, Ginninderra Press)

June Shenfield Poetry Awards

• First place: ‘Momentum’ by Cate Furey (ACT)
• Second place: ‘Wasabi Peas’ by Lucinda Ferguson (NSW)
• Third place: ‘Now Who Let These Thoughts In?’ by Hayden William (NSW)

Children’s

• Picture book: The Turtle and the Flood (Jackie French, illus by Danny Snell, HarperCollins)
• Nonfiction: Wildlife Compendium of the World (Tania McCartney, HG Explore)
• Older readers: We Didn’t Think It Through (Gary Lonesborough, A&U)
• Self-published: That Book About Space Stuff (David Conley)

Marion Halligan Award

• Sleeplessness (Paul Hetherington, Pierian Springs Press)

Marion Fellowship (mentorship with Isobelle Carmody)

• Callie Doyle-Scott for ‘Soup for the Moon’

Anne Edgeworth Writers Fellowship (mentorship valued $5000, joint winners)

• Jemima Parker
• Gill Watson.

The 2024 awards were judged by Frank Bongiorno, Paul Collis, Dan Hogan, Krys Saclier, and Beejay Silcox, with the winners announced on 27 June.

Further information on the winners and highly commended books is available on the Marion website.

Category: Awards Local news