This week, the shortlisted books for the Queensland Literary Awards were announced across several categories. The Queensland Literary Awards are an annual award recognising literary excellence in Australian writing across the following categories:

• Fiction
• Non-fiction
• Poetry
• Young Adult Literature
• Children’s Literature
• Australian History
• Emerging Queensland Writer – Manuscript Award
• People’s Choice Award

The awards are administered by the State Library of Queensland with support from sponsors and the Queensland Government.

This year’s shortlists are:

Queensland Premier’s Award for a Work of State Significance

We Come With this Place by Debra Dank

The Bravest Word by Kate Foster

The Jaguar by Sarah Holland-Batt

Bone Memories by Sally Piper

Praiseworthy by Alexis Wright

The University of Queensland Non-Fiction Book Award

We Come With this Place by Debra Dank

Humanity’s Moment: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope by Joëlle Gerhis

Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong by Louisa Lim

A Kind of Magic: A Memoir about anxiety, our minds, and optimism in spite of it all by Anna Spargo-Ryan

Our Members by Unlimited by Sam Wallman

The University of Queensland Fiction Book Award

Horse by Geraldine Brooks

The Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlane

An Ungrateful Instrument by Michael Meehan

Bon and Lesley by Shaun Prescott

Praiseworthy by Alexis Wright

Griffith University Young Adult Book Award

The Quiet and the Loud by Helena Fox

Completely Normal and other Lies by Biffy James

Unnecessary Drama by Nina Kenwood

If You Could See the Sun by Ann Liang

My Spare Heart by Jared Thomas

Children’s Book Award

The Way of Dog by Zana Fraillon

Jigsaw: A Puzzle in the Post by Bob Graham

My Deadly Boots by Hakea Hustler and Carl Merrison, illustrated by Samantha Campbell

Waiting for the Storks by Katrina Nannestad

Zadie Ma and the Dog Who Chased the Moon by Gabrielle Wang

University of Southern Queensland Steele Rudd Award for a Short Story Collection

An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life by Paul Dalla Rosa

Everything Feels Like the End of the World by Else Fitzgerald

Here be Leviathans by Chris Flynn

Women I Know by Katerina Gibson

Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection

Googlecholia by Michael Farrell

Harvest Lingo by Lionel Fogarty

The Drama Student by Autumn Royal

Fugitive by Simon Tedeschi

Exactly As I Am by Rae White

The Courier-Mail People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award

Cast your vote below, by 5 pm on 14 August, for your favourite book by a Queensland author.

The author who receives the most votes will be awarded $10,000, thanks to The Courier-Mail.

Winners will be revealed at the Queensland Literary Awards ceremony on 6 September. Register here to watch the live stream.

You can buy finalists’ books at The Library Shop or find them in your library. 

Follow the Queensland Literary Awards on Twitter and Facebook to stay up to date.

We Come With This Place by Debra Dank

The Whispering by Veronica Lando

Homecoming by Kate Morton

Bone Memories by Sally Piper

The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding

The Bodyline Fix by Marion Stell

Cloud Land by Penny van Oosterzee

The God of No Good by Sita Walker

Good luck to all the shortlistees!