The Shortlist for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards for 2025 has been announced. It is the richest literary prize in Australia, and celebrates the exceptional talents of emerging and established Australian writers, illustrators, poets, and historians. It acknowledges the contribution that Australian literature and its reflection the nation, and its cultural and intellectual life.
2025 is the third year that Creative Australia has presented the award in line with the release of the Australian Government’s 2023 National Cultural Policy, Revive: a place for every story, a story for every place.
Creative Australia has a newly appointed director for Writing Australia, Wenona Byrne, who said:
“These awards celebrate the highest expression of literary excellence, and we warmly congratulate the shortlisted authors and illustrators on this recognition of their outstanding work.”
“This year marks the first delivery of the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards under Writing Australia. The Awards are a key part of our commitment to supporting the literature sector, and we are proud to celebrate these works as part of a new era in Australian writing.”
So how many entries did the judging panel have to work through?
Creative Australia received 645 entries across six literary categories: fiction, non-fiction, young adult literature, children’s literature, poetry, and Australian history. These were judged by expert judging panels to reach the following shortlist. What a huge job!
The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony at the National Library of Australia on the 29th of September in Canberra. Winners and shortlisted authors will win from a prize pool of $600,000. Winners receive $80,000 and shortlisted authors receive $5,000. Find more information on the website, and follow #PMLitAwards for more interaction and details.
The Shortlist is:
Fiction
Rapture by Emily Maguire
Theory and Practice by Michelle de Kretser
Always Will Be: Stories of Goori sovereignty from the futures of the Tweed by Mykaela Saunders
Juice by Tim Winton
Children’s Literature
A Leaf Called Greaf by Kelly Canby
Leo and Ralph by Peter Carnavas
Raymangirrbuy dhäwu: When I was a little girl by Kylie Gatjawarrawuy Mununggurr
We Live in a Bus by Dave Petzold
Everything You Wanted to Know About the Tooth Fairy (And Some Things You Didn’t) by Briony Stewart
Young Adult
My Family and Other Suspects by Kate Emery
The Anti-Racism Kit by Jinyoung Kim and Sabina Patawaran
Anomaly by Emma Lord
The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland
Poetry
Companions, Ancestors, Inscriptions by Peter Boyle
The Other Side of Daylight: New and Selected Poems by David Brooks
Rock Flight by Hasib Hourani
Makarra by Barrina South
That Galloping Horse by Petra White
Non-Fiction
Deep Water by James Bradley
The Pulling by Adele Dumont
Mean Streak by Rick Morton
Fragile Creatures: A Memoir by Khin Myint
Cactus Pear for my Beloved by Samah Sabawi
Australian History
Warra Warra Wai: How Indigenous Australia discovered Captain Cook and what they tell about the coming of the Ghost People by Darren Rix and Craig Cormick
Critical Care: Nurses on the frontline of Australia’s AIDS crisis by Geraldine Feta
The Wild Reciter: Poetry and Popular Culture in Australia 1890-1920 by Peter Kirkpatrick
Australia in 100 Words by Amanda Laugesen
Ṉäku Dhäruk The Bark Petitions: How the People of Yirrkala Changed the Course of Australian Democracy by Clare Wright
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