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Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards 2025 shortlists announced

The Wheeler Centre has announced the shortlists for the 2025 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.

The shortlisted and highly commended works in each category are:

Fiction ($25,000)

  • The Burrow (Melanie Cheng, Text)
  • The Echoes (Evie Wyld, Vintage)
  • Highway 13 (Fiona McFarlane, A&U)
  • Host City (David Owen Kelly, Puncher & Wattmann)
  • Theory & Practice (Michelle de Kretser, Text)
  • Woo Woo (Ella Baxter, A&U)

Nonfiction ($25,000)

  • Anything Can Happen (Susan Hampton, Puncher & Wattmann)
  • The Lasting Harm: Witnessing the Trial of Ghislaine Maxwell (Lucia Osborne-Crowley, A&U)
  • Monument (Bonny Cassidy, Giramondo)
  • Näku Dhäruk The Bark Petitions: How the People of Yirrkala Changed the Course of Australian Democracy (Clare Wright, Text)
  • A Very Secret Trade (Cassandra Pybus, A&U)

Highly commended: 

Poetry ($25,000)

  • Gawimarra: Gathering (Jeanine Leane, UQP)
  • Holocene Pointbreaks (Jake Goetz, Puncher & Wattmann)
  • rock flight (Hasib Hourani, Giramondo)

Highly commended: 

  • G-d, Sleep, and Chaos (Alan Fyfe, Gazebo Books/Life Before Man)
  • Naag Mountain (Manisha Anjali, Giramondo)

Drama ($25,000)

  • 37 (Nathan Maynard, Currency Press & Melbourne Theatre Company)
  • Frame Narrative (Emily Sheehan)
  • Into the Shimmering World (Angus Cerini)

Indigenous writing ($25,000)

  • Afloat (Kirli Saunders, Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing)
  • Black Witness (Amy McQuire, UQP)
  • I’m Not Really Here (Gary Lonesborough, A&U)
  • Refugia (Elfie Shiosaki, Magabala)

Highly commended:

  • Always Will Be (Mykaela Saunders, UQP)
  • Makarra (Barrina South, Recent Work Press)
  • This Is Where You Have to Go (Lynda Holden & Jo Toscano, Pantera)

Children’s literature ($25,000)

  • The 113th Assistant Librarian (Stuart Wilson, Penguin)
  • Listen, Hippo! (Gabriel Evans, Puffin)
  • The Midwatch (Judith Rossell, Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing)
  • Three Dresses (Wanda Gibson, UQP)

Highly commended: 

  • How to Free a Jinn (Raidah Shah Idil, A&U)
  • Squishbook: Make Comics with Squishface Studio and Friends! (ed by David Blumenstein, containing works by numerous cartoonists and Kensington Primary School students, Squishface Studios)

Writing for young adults ($25,000)

Highly commended:

  • One by One They Disappear (Mike Lucas, Penguin)
  • The Skin I’m In (Steph Tisdell, Macmillan)

John Clarke Prize for Humour Writing ($25,000)

  • Detachable Penis: A Queer Legal Saga (Sam Elkin, Upswell)
  • Ghost Cities (Siang Lu, UQP)
  • I’d Rather Not (Robert Skinner, Black Inc.)
  • The Medusa Situation (Gabiann Marin, Clan Destine Press)
  • My Brother’s Ashes Are in a Sandwich Bag (Michelle Brasier, Ultimo)

Unpublished manuscript ($15,000)

  • ‘Every Stolen Moment’ (Lauren Williams)
  • ‘Heavy Petting’ (Kat Capel)
  • ‘I Made This Just for You’ (Chris Ames)

Highly commended: 

  • ‘Nina and Pearl’ (Fleur Glenn).

Celebrating the 40th year of the awards, the VPLAs this year include the inaugural John Clarke Prize for Humour Writing.

The winners in each category, as well as the winner of the overall Victorian Prize for Literature (worth $100,000), will be announced at a ceremony in Melbourne and live-streamed on the Wheeler Centre website on Wednesday 19 March.

More information about the awards and judges’ comments are available on the Wheeler Centre website.

 

Category: Awards Local news