NSW Literary Awards Shortlist 2026

No longer the Premier’s Literary Awards, the NSW Literary Awards shortlist has been announced. As usual, I’ve read or seen very few of them (I’ve included images of those)and have a couple more on my TBR shelf. The State Library of NSW website is a little unwieldy – here’s the list in more accessible form. All the links are to the library’s site, including the judges’ comments.

Christina Stead Prize for Fiction

Judging panel: Jock Serong, Abbas El-Zein, Jenn Martin, Angela O’Keeffe, Jonathan Seidler.

• Cure, Katherine Brabon (Ultimo Press)
• Arborescence, Rhett Davis (Hachette Australia)
• The Immigrants, Moreno Giovannoni (Black Inc) – My blog post on his excellent Fireflies of Autumn here
• The Passenger Seat, Vijay Khurana (Ultimo Press) 
• Rapture, Emily Maguire (Allen & Unwin) – My blog post here
• Elegy, Southwest Madeleine Watts (Ultimo Press) 

Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction

Judging panel: Maddison Connaughton, Alan Atkinson, Meera Atkinson, Bridget Brennan, Anton Enus.

• Always Home, Always Homesick, Hannah Kent (Picador Australia) – my blog post to come when the Book Club meet
• Find Me at the Jaffa Gate, Micaela Sahhar (NewSouth Publishing) 
• Gather Up Your World in One Long Breath, S. Shakthidharan (Powerhouse Publishing) – beside my bed
• 58 Facets, Marika Sosnowski (MUP) 
• Clever Men, Martin Thomas (Allen & Unwin)
• Näku Dhäruk The Bark Petitions, Clare Wright (Text Publishing)

Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry

Judging panel: Rico Craig, Alison Croggon, Kate Middleton, Sara M Saleh, Les Wicks,

• A Sonogrammar, Kay Lare (Puncher and Wattmann)
• Year of the Ox ANDREW BROOKS (Cordite Publishing)
• How To Emerge, Jill Jones (Vagabond Press) – on my TBR shelf
• Bathypelagia, Debbie Lim (Cordite Publishing)
• The Hum Hearers, Shey Marque (UWA Publishing)
• Past & Parallel Lives, Kaya Ortiz (UWA Publishing)

Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children’s Literature

Judging panel: Tim Harris, Ursula Dubosarsky, Maryam Master

• Little Bones, Sandy Bigna (UQP)
• Into the Bewilderness, Gus Gordon (Figment Books)
• The Year We Escaped, Suzanne Leal (HarperCollins Publishers Australia)
• An Ant’s Guide to Being an Ant, Zoe Meagher and Julia Darling (Museums Victoria)
• A Gift from the Birds, Caroline Stills (Text Publishing)
• Gone, Michel Streich (Thames & Hudson Australia)

Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature

Judging panel: Davina Bell, Anna Fienberg, Ambelin Kwaymullina

• A Good Kind of Trouble, Brooke Blurton and Melanie Saward (HarperCollins Publishers Australia)
• How to Be Normal, Ange Crawford (Walker Books Australia)
• Darkest Night, Brightest Star, Barry Jonsberg (Allen & Unwin Children’s)
• Weaving Us Together, Lay Maloney (Lothian Children’s Books)
• Golden, Jade Timms (Text Publishing)
• Desert Tracks, Marly Wells and Linda Wells (Magabala Books)

Highly commended

• Starlight, Solli Raphael (Puffin)

Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting

Judging panel: Dylan Van Den Berg, Peter Matheson, Paige Rattray

• Song of First Desire, Andrew Bovell (Belvoir St Theatre/Currency Press)
• The Black Woman of Gippsland, Andrea James (Melbourne Theatre Company/Currency Press)
• Snakeface, Aliyah Knight (Fruit Box Theatre and Belvoir 25A)
• Destiny, Kirsty Marillier Marillier (Melbourne Theatre Company)
• The Wrong Gods, S. Shakthidharan (Belvoir St Theatre/Melbourne Theatre Company/Currency Press)
• Troy, Tom Wright (Malthouse Theatre)

Highly commended

• Koreaboo, Michelle Lim Davidson (Griffin Theatre Company)
• Nucleus, Alana Valentine (Griffin Theatre Company/Currency Press)

Betty Roland Prize for Scriptwriting

udging panel: Jenevieve Chang, Pauline Clague, Richard Kuipers

• Christy, Mirrah Foulkes and David Michôd (Black Bear)
• Mystery Road: Origin, Season 2, Episode 2, Jada Alberts (Bunya Productions, ABC)
• The Correspondent, Peter Duncan (Pop Family Entertainment)
• Fisk, Season 3, Episode 3 ‘I’m the Fisk’, Penny Flanagan and Kitty Flanagan (ABC)
• The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Episode 4, Shaun Grant (Curio Pictures, Screen Australia, Amazon MGM Studios)
• Apple Cider Vinegar, Episode 1, Samantha Strauss (See-Saw Films & Picking Scabs)

Indigenous Writers’ Prize

Judging panel: Aunty Fay Muir, Krystal De Napoli, Glenn Shea

• Murriyang: Song of time, Stan Grant (Bundyi, an imprint of Simon and Schuster Australia)
• On the Way to Yalaŋbara, Rärriwuy Gurramu Marika and Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs (Indigenous Literacy Foundation)
• Apron-Sorrow / Sovereign-Tea, Natalie Harkin (Wakefield Press)
• MLA26 IWP SL Eclipse, Kirli Saunders (JOAN, an imprint of Allen & Unwin)
• Long Yarn Short: We Are Still Here, Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts (UQP)
• Old Days Imanka nurna laakinha nitjaarta, Marjorie Nunga Williams (Magabala Books)

Multicultural NSW Award

Judging panel: Thuy On, Sarah Ayoub, Simon Chan, Farz Edraki, Ita Hanssens

• Discipline, Randa Abdel-Fattah (UQP)
• Learned Behaviours, Zeynab Gamieldien (Ultimo Press)
• Murriyang: Song of time, Stan Grant (Bundyi, an imprint of Simon and Schuster Australia)
• How to Dodge Flying Sandals and Other Advice for Life, Daniel Nour (Affirm Press)
• Find Me at the Jaffa Gate, Micaela Sahhar (NewSouth Publishing)
• Gather Up Your World in One Long Breath, S. Shakthidharan (Powerhouse Publishing)

Highly commended

• Shapeshifting, Jeanine Leane and Ellen Van Neerven (Eds) (UQP)
• It’s a Sign, Ela Pinar (Guest House Publishing)

UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing

• How to Be Normal, Ange Crawford (Walker Books Australia)
• Snakeface, Aliyah Knight (Fruit Box Theatre and Belvoir 25A)
• An Ant’s Guide to Being an Ant, Zoe Meagher and Julia Darling (Museums Victoria)
• Wait Here, Lucy Nelson (Summit Books Australia)
• A Savage Turn, Luke Patterson (Magabala Books)
• Find Me at the Jaffa Gate, Micaela Sahhar (NewSouth Publishing) 
• Long Yarn Short: We Are Still Here, Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts (UQP)

The University of Sydney People’s Choice Award and Book of the Year don’t have short lists.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony at the Library on Monday 18th of May.