The following is taken from Books and Publishing.

The Wheeler Centre has announced the 2024 shortlists for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, and the winners will be announced in a few days. Each category has shortlisted and highly commended books, which are listed and the ones I have read are linked back to those reviews from last year.

Fiction ($25,000)

• But the Girl (Jessica Zhan Mei Yu, Hamish Hamilton)
• Edenglassie (Melissa Lucashenko, UQP)
• Only Sound Remains (Hossein Asgari, Puncher & Wattmann)
• Serengotti (Eugen Bacon, Transit Lounge)
• Stone Yard Devotional (Charlotte Wood, A&U)
• Wall (Jen Craig, Puncher & Wattmann)

Highly commended

• Burn (Melanie Saward, Affirm)
• Paradise Estate (Max Easton, Giramondo)
• Southern Aurora (Mark Brandi, Hachette)

Nonfiction ($25,000)

• Cruel Care: A history of children at our borders (Jordana Silverstein, Monash University Publishing)
• Fat Girl Dancing (Kris Kneen, Text)
• Flawed Hero: Truth, lies and war crimes (Chris Masters, A&U)
• Killing for Country: A family story (David Marr, Black Inc.)
• The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel exports the technology of occupation around the world (Antony Loewenstein, Scribe)
• Personal Score: Sport, culture, identity (Ellen van Neerven, UQP)

Indigenous writing ($25,000)

• Close to the Subject: Selected works (Daniel Browning, Magabala)
• Firelight (John Morrissey, Text)
• Personal Score: Sport, culture, identity (Ellen van Neerven, UQP)

Highly commended

• Dirrarn (Carl Merrison & Hakea Hustler, Magabala)
• Etta and the Shadow Taboo (J M Field & Jeremy Worrall, Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing)

Children’s literature

• Ghost Book (Remy Lai, A&U)
• It’s the Sound of the Thing: 100 new poems for young people (Maxine Beneba Clarke, Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing)
• Who’s Afraid of the Light? (Anna McGregor, Scribble)

Highly commended

• Australia: Country of colour (Jess Racklyeft, Affirm)
• The Goodbye Year (Emily Gale, Text)

Drama ($25,000)

• Jacky (Declan Furber Gillick, Currency Press & Melbourne Theatre Company)
• The Jungle and the Sea (S Shakthidharan & Eamon Flack, Belvoir St Theatre & Currency Press)
• Loaded (adapted by Christos Tsiolkas & Dan Giovannoni, Malthouse Theatre)

Highly commended

• The Dictionary of Lost Words (adapted by Verity Laughton, State Theatre Company South Australia)
• Nosferatu (Keziah Warner, Currency Press, commissioned by Malthouse Theatre)
• Telethon Kid (Alistair Baldwin, commissioned by Malthouse Theatre)

Poetry ($25,000)

• the body country (Susie Anderson, Hachette)
• Chinese Fish (Grace Yee, Giramondo)
• Kangaroo Paw (Claire Miranda Roberts, Vagabond)

Writing for young adults ($25,000)

• A Hunger of Thorns (Lili Wilkinson, A&U Children’s)
• The Quiet and the Loud (Helena Fox, Pan)
• We Could Be Something (Will Kostakis, A&U Children’s)

Highly commended

• We Didn’t Think It Through (Gary Lonesborough, A&U Children’s)

Unpublished manuscript ($15,000)

• ‘Garbage’ (Hayley Elliott-Ryan)
• ‘Laughing River’ (N J Madden)
• ‘Panajachel’ (Rachel Morton).
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The overall winners of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards will be announced on 1 February with the overall Victorian Prize for Literature. The Victorian Prize for Literature is worth $100,000, which goes to a winner from any category other than the unpublished manuscript prize. Last year’s Victorian Prize for Literature winner was Cold Enough for Snow (Jessica Au, Giramondo).

In addition to the cash prize, the winner of the Award for an Unpublished Manuscript will receive a two-week residency at the McCraith House in Dromana. Last year’s recipient was ‘One Divine Night’ by Mick Cummins.

More details are available at the Wheeler Centre website.