ARA Historical Novel Prize longlists announced

The Historical Novel Society Australasia (HNSA) has announced the longlists for the 2024 ARA Historical Novel Prize.

The longlisted titles are:

Adult category

• The Unearthed (Lenny Bartulin, A&U)
• Women & Children (Tony Birch, UQP)
• The Beauties (Lauren Chater, S&S)
• A Better Place (Stephen Daisley, Text)
• Restless Dolly Maunder (Kate Grenville, Text)
• The Visitors (Jane Harrison, Fourth Estate)
• The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard (Natasha Lester, Hachette)
• Edenglassie (Melissa Lucashenko, UQP)
• To Sing of War (Catherine McKinnon, Fourth Estate)

Children and young adult category

• Secret Sparrow (Jackie French, HarperCollins)
• The Detective’s Guide to Paris (Nicki Greenberg, Affirm)
• Two Sparrowhawks in a Lonely Sky (Rebecca Lim, A&U Children’s)
• Spies in the Sky (Beverley McWilliams, illus by Martina Heiduczek, Pantera)
• Silver Linings (Katrina Nannestad, ABC Books)
• The Fortune Maker (Catherine Norton, HarperCollins)
• Only Two: The Loss of the Loch Ard (Jackie Randall, self-published).

HNSA chair Elisabeth Storrs said: ‘The ARA Historical Novel Prize is a true celebration of historical fiction and a real opportunity to encourage readers of all ages to embrace the genre. From tales set in Restoration England, across two world wars, and China during Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward, through to Australian stories of First Nations’ resistance, intergenerational trauma, colonial survivors, and post-war migrants, the longlists demonstrate the power of the genre to recover lost, overlooked or deliberately erased histories.’ 

This year, the prize pool increased from $100,000 to $150,000. The prize’s shortlist will be announced on 2 October, followed by the winners on 23 October. The adult category winner will receive $100,000, and the children and young adult category winner will receive $30,000, while other shortlisted authors will receive $5000 each.

The ARA Historical Novel Prize was established in 2020 and is open to historical fiction books from Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Last year’s winners were Gail Jones (adult category, for Salonika Burning, Text) and Amelia Mellor (children and young adult category, for The Bookseller’s Apprentice, Affirm).

The judging panel for the adult category includes Tony Maniaty (chair), Michael Williams, Sienna Brown, Meenakshi Bharat and Catherine Chidgey; while children and young adult category judges include Anna Ciddor (chair), Lystra Rose and Danielle Clode.

More information about the prize is available on the HNSA website.

Category: Awards Local news