Celebrating our members’ success in national and international literary awards

October 8, 2025

We’re delighted to celebrate the outstanding achievements of our members recently recognised in major Australian and international literary awards.

The Prime Minister’s Literary Awards recognise individual excellence and the contribution that Australian writers, poets, illustrators and historians make to the nation’s cultural and intellectual life. Congratulations to our winning members in the 2025 Awards:

  • Fiction – Michelle de Kretser for Theory & Practice, published by Text Publishing.
  • Non-Fiction – Rick Morton for Mean Streak, published by HarperCollins Publishing.
  • Poetry – David Brooks for The Other Side of Daylight: New and Selected Poems, published by University of Queensland Press.
  • Children’s Literature – Peter Carnavas for Leo and Ralph, published by University of Queensland Press.

Congratulations to our members who were honoured at the 2025 Queensland Literary Awards:

  • Clare Wright received the University of Queensland Non-Fiction Book Award for Näku Dhäruk The Bark Petitions: How the People of Yirrkala Changed the Course of Australian Democracy, published by Text Publishing.
  • Chris Andrews received the Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection for The Oblong Plot, published by Puncher & Wattmann. This award is proudly supported by Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.
  • E.M. Crismani received the David Unaipon Award for an Emerging Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Writer for ‘Finding Billy Brown’. This award is proudly supported by Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.
  • Laura Elvery received The Courier-Mail People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award for Nightingale, published by University of Queensland Press.
  • Mykaela Saunders received a Queensland Writers Fellowship for ‘Dear Uncle’.

In the UK, Helen Garner has been shortlisted for the prestigious Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction for How to End a Story: Collected Diaries (published in Australia as three separate volumes by Text Publishing). Congratulations to Helen and best of luck for the winner announcement on 4 November.

Congratulations to all our members recognised for their outstanding contributions to Australian literature.