24th Davitt Awards Longlist

There are many awards for literature in Australia across a wide range of genres and audiences. Some of these I follow more eagerly than others, usually the ones that might not always get as much media attention as some of the major ones. My favourite awards lists to check out each year are the CBCA Book of the Year, and the Sisters in Crime Davitt Awards for the best crime and mystery books published by women in the previous year – so this year’s awards are all about 2023 publications.  I enjoy seeing what I have read and checking out what might interest me to read in the future.

This year, the six judges read 153 books, including 120 adult books to come up with the longlist of 30 books. I have read five of the children’s ones, one young adult, and one adult novel of the 30, with the adult one reviewed for ArtsHub.  It looks like there were a lot of debuts this year as well that haven’t crossed my path yet.

DAVITTS 2024 LONGLIST

Best Adult Novels (16)

Alison Goodman, The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies (HarperCollins Australia)

Bronwyn Hall, The Chasm (HQ Fiction)

Amanda Hampson, The Tea Ladies (Penguin Random House) Debut

Catherine Jinks, Traced (Text Publishing)

Christine Keighery, The Half Brother (Ultimo Press) Debut

Ali Lowe, The Running Club (Hodder & Stoughton)

Mercedes Mercier, Black Lies (HarperCollins Australia)

Suzie Miller, Prima Facie (Pan Macmillan Australia) Debut

Marija Pericic, Exquisite Corpse (Ultimo Press)

Michelle Prak, The Rush (Simon & Schuster) Debut

Joan Sauers, Echo Lake (Allen & Unwin) Debut

Amy Suiter Clarke, Lay Your Body Down (Text Publishing)

Carolyn Swindell, We Only Want What’s Best (Affirm Press) Debut

Darcy Tindale, The Fall Between (Penguin Random House) Debut

Monica Vuu, When One of Us Hurts (Pan Macmillan Australia) Debut

Patricia Wolf, Paradise (Echo Publishing)

Best Non-Fiction Books (6)

Marele Day, Reckless (Ultimo Press)

Ahona Guha, Reclaim: Understanding complex trauma and those who abuse (Scribe Publications) Debut

Rebecca Hazel, The Schoolgirl, her Teacher and his Wife (Penguin Random House)

Christine Kenneally, Ghosts of the Orphanage (Hachette Australia)

Nicole Madigan, Obsession (Pantera Press) Debut

Megan Norris, The Messiah’s Bride (Penguin Random House)

Best Young Adult Novels (2)

Amy Doak, Eleanor Jones Is Not a Murderer (Penguin Random House) Debut

Ellie Marney, Some Shall Break (Allen & Unwin)

Best Children’s Novel (6)

Lucinda Gifford, The Wolves of Greycoat Hall (Walker Books)

Ash Harrier, The Eerie Excavation (Pantera Press)

Kelli Anne Hawkins, Copycat (HarperCollins Australia)

Alison Rushby, Miss Penny Dreadful and the Malicious Maze (Walker Books)

Alison Tait, The First Summer of Callie McGee (Scholastic Australia)

Anna Zobel, This Camp Is Doomed: A Dennith Grange Misadventure (Penguin Random House)

Looking forward to seeing how these books go!