2024 Prime Ministers Literary Award Shortlist

Another shortlist that has come out recently in the current crop of awards announcements and shortlist announcements is the 2024 Prime Ministers Literary Award Shortlist. The following books were chosen from 533 entries across six categories for the awards that celebrate emerging and established Australian writers, illustrators, poets and historians.

Australian History

• Donald Horne: A Life in the Lucky Country by Ryan Cropp (La Trobe University Press)  
• Bee Miles By Rose Ellis (Allen & Unwin)  
• Bennelong and Phillip: A History Unravelled by Kate Fullagar (Scribner)  
• Killing for Country: A Family Story by David Marr (Black Inc) 
• Courting: An Intimate History of Love and the Law by Alecia Simmonds (La Trobe University Press)  

Fiction

• Anam by André Dao (Penguin Random House) 
• Restless Dolly Maunder by Kate Grenville (Text Publishing)  
• Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko (University of Queensland Press)  
• The Carnal Fugues by Catherine McNamara (Puncher and Wattmann) 
• Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood (Allen & Unwin)  

Non-fiction

• Close to the Subject: Selected Works by Daniel Browning (Magabala Books)  
• Eventually Everything Connects by Sarah Firth (Allen & Unwin)  
• Graft: Motherhood, Family and a Year on the Land by Maggie MacKellar (Penguin Random House) 
• A Kind of Confession by Alex Miller (Allen & Unwin)  
• A Clear Flowing Yarra by Harry Saddler (Affirm Press)  

Poetry

• In the Photograph by Luke Beesley (Giramondo Publishing)  
• The Cyprian by Amy Crutchfield (Giramondo Publishing)  
• She is the Earth by Ali Cobby Eckermann (Magabala Books)  
• Golden Bridge: New Poems by Jennifer Maiden (Quemar Press)  
• The Drama Student by Autumn Royal (Giramondo Publishing) 

Young Adult

• Grace Notes by Karen Comer (Hachette Australia)  
• Welcome to Sex by Dr Melissa Kang and Yumi Stynes (Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing) 
• We Could Be Something by Will Kostakis (Allen & Unwin)  
• We Didn’t Think It Through by Gary Lonesborough (Allen & Unwin)  
• A Hunger of Thorns by Lili Wilkinson (Allen & Unwin)  

Children’s Literature

• Etta and the Shadow Taboo by Jared Field and Jeremy Worrall (Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing)  
• Ghost Book by Remy Lai (Allen & Unwin)  
• Two Sparrowhawks in a Lonely Sky by Rebecca Lim (Allen & Unwin) 
• Millie Mak the Maker by Alice Pung and Sher Rill Ng (HarperCollins Publishers)  
• Tamarra: A Story of Termites on Gurindji Country by Violet Wadrill, Topsy Dodd Ngarnjal, Leah Leaman, Cecelia Edwards, Cassandra Algy, Felicity Meakins, Briony Barr and Gregory Crocetti (Hardie Grant Explore) 

I can’t wait to see which books win!