2026 Shortlists
Brisbane Writers Festival is honoured to be entrusted with the Queensland Literary Awards, which are supported by the State Government of Queensland through Arts Queensland. We’d like to offer a hearty congratulations to all of this year’s talented shortlisted artists, and a fulsome thank you to all of the hardworking judges.
The shortlists for all categories are below (keep an eye out for all these titles at the festival bookshop!). All category winners will be announced at the QLAs ceremony as part of BWF on 8 October. May the best books win!
#Queensland Premier's Award for Work of State Significance
Terraglossia
Debra Dank
Echo Publishing
Judges’ Comments:
Terraglossia takes the reader on a journey through Country and time. Debra Dank’s writing is rich, thoughtful and engaging. She shows tremendous care, respect and consideration. She displays deep research, excellent technical skill, an original conceptual framework, and a strong and distinctive voice. Terraglossia is an inviting read into this Country.
Not Quite White in the Head
Melissa Lucashenko
University of Queensland Press
Judges’ Comments:
In Not Quite White in Head, acclaimed writer Melissa Lucashenko brings together a remarkable collection of diverse and thought-provoking essays for the first time. Written over two decades, with characteristic passion and insight, the essays engage powerfully with matters of politics, justice, and everyday life, challenging us to think in new ways about Queensland and the world. Not Quite White in the Head is a fine achievement, the kind we have come to expect from Melissa Lucashenko.
Looking from the North: Australian History from the Top Down
Henry Reynolds
NewSouth Publishing
Judges’ Comments:
Distinguished historian Henry Reynolds breaks new ground in this powerful reinterpretation of Australian history. Deeply researched and skilfully written, Looking from the North centres the story of colonisation north of the Tropic of Capricorn, challenging long-held assumptions about Australia’s past and presenting a strikingly original perspective on Australia’s national identity. This book will be a pivotal work in Queensland and Australian history for years to come.
Quentin Bryce: The Authorised Biography
Juliet Rieden
Penguin Australia
Judges’ Comments:
Quentin Bryce: The Authorised Biography meticulously captures the life of one of Australia’s most distinguished public figures. Juliet Rieden takes the reader on an extraordinary journey, from Bryce’s country town childhood in western Queensland to her trailblazing career in the law and appointment as Australia’s first female Governor General. Alongside all of the professional achievements, Rieden also explores the impact of Bryce’s social advocacy work and the significance of the life partnership she enjoyed with late husband, Michael. This fascinating and well written biography is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand this truly remarkable Australian.
The Pearl of Tagai Town
Lenora Thaker
Text Publishing
Judges’ Comments:
The Pearl of Tagai Town is unambiguously and distinctively Queensland. Its vivid sense of place makes the work both accessible and deeply enjoyable. Lenora Thaker’s tale of love, family and friendship is confident and assured. Themes of identity, belonging and self-determination reflect research, respect and care. Warm, richly drawn characters and an innovative integration of Ailan languages come together in a rich, cohesive whole, bringing new insight and fresh imaginative life to a Far North Queensland community. The Pearl of Tagai Town is a stunning debut novel.
#Non-Fiction Book Award
Terraglossia
Debra Dank
Echo Publishing
Judges’ Comments:
An account that is startling in its originality, Debra Dank’s Terraglossia is a rare work of literary art – analytic yet profoundly moving, it reconciles, poetically, the differing calls of ancestry and thought to sketch a resonant new vision of Australia – its deep past and its potential future.
Brave New Wild
Richard King
Monash University Publishing
Judges’ Comments:
A critique that is both far-reaching and thoughtful, Richard King’s Brave New Wild offers a pioneering take on the climate crisis: how it’s analysed, conceived and represented – and why we should be profoundly sceptical of those who propose to solve it via the tools of new technology.
Find Me at the Jaffa Gate
Micaela Sahhar
NewSouth Publishing
Judges’ Comments:
A personal history and an individual odyssey, Micaela Sahhar weaves together the enduring threads of a family scattered in the post-Nakba diaspora of Palestine.
Fourteen Ways of Looking
Erin Vincent
Upswell Publishing
Judges’ Comments:
A poetic meditation that mixes up identity, voice and belonging, Erin Vincent’s impressionistic take on trauma and voice identifies a beautiful new place that’s original and illuminating.
The Red House
Kate Wild
Allen and Unwin
Judges’ Comments:
The ABC’s Kate Wild reports on the judicial murder of Kumanjayi Walker in calm, precise yet forensic detail.
#Fiction Book Award
Department of the Vanishing
Johanna Bell
Transit Lounge
Judges’ Comments:
Johanna Bell has constructed a palimpsest of archival materials — the logs of extinct bird species, lists of lovers and heartbreaks, prosecution transcriptions, ornithological notes, and bureaucratic hodgepodge. This experimental form fits perfectly the emotional question at the heart of the novel: how do we preserve those things doomed to disappear?
Arborescence
Rhett Davis
Hachette Australia
Judges’ Comments:
This is a proper novel of ideas, built around a conceit that is utterly ridiculous but miraculously becomes convincing. The central question, whether stillness/ rootedness might cure frenzied consumption, is an old one given a surprising form. It is at its best when arborescence remains unstable and teeters towards apocalypse.
The Name of the Sister
Gail Jones
Text Publishing
Judges’ Comments:
The Name of the Sister is a restrained, morally serious novel about grief and absence. Both digressive and propulsive, this novel riffs ambitiously on the literary crime/thriller genre to occupy the interstitial spaces between stories and identities. The prose is assertive in its lyricism but always rooted in the familiar.
On Not Climbing Mountains
Claire Thomas
Hachette Australia
Judges’ Comments:
This is a remarkable novel about the unstable relation between cultural memory and private loss. It’s a compendious work, swallowing up guidebooks, timetables, art histories. Elliptical in structure and spacious of prose, Thomas balances the weight of her research with a light touch, allowing recurring motifs to both agglomerate and peel away.
In a Common Hour
Sita Walker
Ultimo Press
Judges’ Comments:
In a Common Hour inhabits the lives of the school students and staff of a Queensland state high school. With tenderness and subtle humour, the novel reveals the depth and texture of small communities, using the schoolground – and just one hour – to render a sizeable cast real, sympathetic, and interconnected.
#Young Adult Book Award
Once Upon Tomorrow
Karen Comer
Hachette Australia
Judges’ Comments:
Through a unique blend of verse and prose, the interwoven stories of three teenage girls existing 100 years apart are artfully revealed: a tapestry artist, a present-day pregnant teen, and a futuristic teen reliant on technology. Comer has created a seminal, thought-provoking and beautifully evoked speculative novel encapsulating issues of procreation, sustainability, technology and equality.
This Season's Draft
Jason Gent
Allen and Unwin
Judges’ Comments:
With crisp, vivid language and authentic teen voices, this verse novel skilfully captures the hopes and fears of six teenagers in the lead-up to the AFL Draft over the course of a year’s four seasons. Gent highlights the pressures and pitfalls of the teenage years and the sporting world with brevity and beauty.
Good Young Men
Gary Lonesborough
Allen and Unwin
Judges’ Comments:
Kallum, Jordy and Dylan are three young Aboriginal men finishing high school in a racially divided small town. With the trial of a local police officer suspected of murdering their friend looming, this powerfully moving and tension-filled tripartite narrative grippingly navigates themes of identity, grief, racism and masculinity.
The Belly of a Wolf
Julianne Negri
UWA Publishing
Judges’ Comments:
After the death of her best friend, Red is emerging from the belly of her grief and learning how to live again. Through lyrical verse and allegory, Negri’s mesmerising and rhythmic tale captivates in emotion, style and form. A powerful, haunting and universally resonant tale of loss, love, music and friendship.
Tearing Myself Together
Anna Whateley
Allen and Unwin
Judges’ Comments:
Hilzy and Imogen used to be best friends and are trying to complete year twelve. They are also each navigating invisible disabilities. Through authentic voice and characterisation, this emotive narrative of friendship and family explores daily life experienced with invisible disabilities, and how knowing who you are is essential for self-advocacy and empowerment in all relationships.
#Children's Book Award
One Koala, One Hundred Trees
Leesa Allinson, Heather Potter, Mark Jackson
Wild Dog Books
Judges’ Comments:
A fascinating book told with clear and precise language, and with a lot of heart and emotion. The variety of ways the information is presented keeps the narrative engaging for young readers and the facts are highly accessible to readers searching for more information. An important story about the survival of one of Australia’s most beloved mammals.
Myra in the Middle
Seetha Dodd, Peter Cheong
University of Queensland Press
Judges’ Comments:
Myra is an endearing character and longs to be something other than the middle child in her family. This clever story interweaves many devices to interact with the reader – from mathematical equations to tables to problem solving. It is an innovative and engaging read for junior readers wanting to find themselves too, and aims to be a beacon of representation by not shying away from issues that will be relatable to readers from diverse backgrounds. The artwork is stunning and helps bring Myra’s world to life.
The Midlands
Kate Gordon
Riveted Press
Judges’ Comments:
Set in 1916, this is a wickedly charming tale of five feisty sisters, all with wildly differing personalities, who rail against the societal conformities expected of girls at the time. With the glorious Australian bushland as backdrop, the lyrical prose is bursting with heart and beautiful imaginative text. Readers will come to care for these brilliant, unruly sisters and wish the best outcomes for them.
Ruby's Web
Ellen van Neerven
Magabala Books
Judges’ Comments:
Ruby is a compelling character with a strong voice. Her internal thoughts help the reader connect with her struggles as she battles schoolyard and online bullying, in the aftermath of losing her beloved father. Ruby’s family connection is beautiful, especially with her nan, and the anchors of home and Country are particularly relevant to the story as Ruby yearns for silence and safety. This short and engaging novel is impactful and powerful and is written with a poet’s touch.
Once I Was a Giant
Zeno Sworder
Thames and Hudson Australia
Judges’ Comments:
An exquisite story from start to finish, with strong themes layered over each other. The pacing of this story is incredible, with panels depicting multiple events over big leaps of time. The wanderer who colours the story with folklore elements also aids in keeping track of time, his arrival every season spanning the growth of the tree from its thin trunk to a giant beast, all shown in one clever spread. With simple and evocative language, this book makes the reader feel like you’ve journeyed with the tree over the course of its life and experienced its pain, joy and hope.
#Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection
KONTRA
Eunice Andrada
Giramondo Publishing
Judges’ Comments:
A book of exceptional formal ambition and imaginative force, KONTRA enlarges the possibilities of the contemporary lyric. Through its deft interplay of lyric, persona and documentary fragments, the collection moves between the personal and the historical, the mythical and the contemporary, blurring the boundaries between them while sustaining a rare urgency throughout. These are poems of haunting and transformation, alive to the violence and love we carry with us. Andrada’s formal inventiveness arises naturally from the emotional and intellectual pressures of her work. Conceptually sophisticated and emotionally immediate, KONTRA is a work of astonishing clarity and enduring resonance.
Leaves Fall Off to Create Drama
Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle
Giramondo Publishing
Judges’ Comments:
The voice at the core of this collection of prose poems is unique and striking. This is a book that warrants rereading: its phrases appear and reappear in ever more inventive ways as the poet adopts intricate and unpredictable patterns that are variously bleak, witty, playful and eerie. The collection endlessly recombines and repurposes language, finding in collage and repetition a form of transformation. The past inevitably returns across these poems, transformed always by the poet’s charismatic voice.
Shark of Messina
Liam Ferney
Hunter Publishing
Judges’ Comments:
Shark of Messina is at once playful and serious, as attentive to the absurdities and idiosyncrasies of internet language as it is to the grief and terror of natural disasters. Ferney’s poems are precise and well-balanced; his command of the line is unfaltering and his capacity to surprise and delight the reader is ceaseless. The book’s bricolage of language grifted from the unreliable domains of advertising, popular culture and memes results in poems full of wit and energy which ask the reader to confront that which resists definition or beggars belief.
Jack Mundey in Red Square
James Lucas
Recent Work Press
Judges’ Comments:
This wide-ranging volume is impressive for its mastery of styles and for the way in which it delves into the past, into place, and into the intimacies of memory, exploring both personal and historical narratives, layering them with penetrating focus and diction. Wit and play give these poems an enduring elegance, they delight in verbal and formal exploration, their expansive trajectories of subject matter are always stabilised with intelligence and are inflected with finely tuned emotions. This is poet in full control of his craft. Magic is suffused onto every page.
A Savage Turn
Luke Patterson
Magabala Books
Judges’ Comments:
This dynamic first collection strikes with irony and sardonic humour as it investigates colonial reckonings and the systematic trauma inflicted on indigenous people. The language dives headlong into its tropes to inventively expose this divestment of agency and power. The collection also looks at chronic Indigenous incarceration, at places usurped by settler lore, reconstituting them with images defiant of ownership and possession. These poems are imbued with a spirited intelligence, and while uncompromising in their critique of past and present, are also full of intimacy and tenderness.
#Steele Rudd Award for a Short Story Collection (Biennial Award)
Playing Nice Was Getting Me Nowhere
Alex Cothren
Pink Shorts Press
Judges’ Comments:
This delightfully inventive collection uses a range of clever scenarios to skewer contemporary life. Playing with form and imagery, Alex Cothren writes razor-sharp satire that contends with political conspiracies, compassion fatigue, crime as entertainment, vanity, and more.
U Want It Darker
Murray Middleton
Picador Australia
Judges’ Comments:
In these ‘tales of artists in despair’, Murray Middleton has crafted a cohesive work that showcases a diversity of storytelling techniques and points of view. From actors to painters to documentary makers, Middleton depicts the creative life with both pathos and humour.
Wait Here
Lucy Nelson
Simon and Schuster
Judges’ Comments:
A work of impressive emotional depth and nuance, Wait Here is full of distinctive characters and experiences as Lucy Nelson explores the collection’s central theme from different angles. These stories are beautifully structured, memorable and always surprising.
Mother Salad
Helena Pantsis
UWA Publishing
Judges’ Comments:
Mother Salad is an exhilarating collection with flashes of the macabre: in these stories, people are often different from who they initially seem to be. Showing a flair for experimentation, Helena Pantsis offers a fresh perspective on transformation, loss and relationship dynamics.
#The Lord Mayor's People's Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award
The Lord Mayor’s People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award lets you decide the winner! The shortlist comprises two judges’ picks each from the Fiction and Non-Fiction award categories, plus six more eligible titles based on Queensland sales and Brisbane City Council library borrows.
People’s Choice voting closes 5pm AEST Thursday 10 September. Click the button below to vote for your favourite read from this year’s shortlist.
Rise and Shine
Kimberley Allsopp
HarperCollins
People Powered Radio
Heather Anderson
Springer Nature
The Secret Year of Zara Holt
Kimberley Freeman
Hachette Australia
Honeyeater
Kathleen Jennings
Picador Australia
Average at Best
Astrid Jorgensen
Simon and Schuster
Two Islands
Ian Kemish
University of Queensland Press
Mary Penfold
Grantlee Kieza
HarperCollins
Melaleuca
Angie Faye Martin
HarperCollins
In a Common Hour
Sita Walker
Ultimo Press
The Nocturnals
Frances Whiting
HarperCollins
#David Unaipon Award for an Emerging Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Writer
The South Paddock
Rick Slager
Judges’ Comments:
The South Paddock is an enticing family-fiction drama that explores the deeply-guarded secrets seemingly perfect communities keep. Commenting on important contemporary issues like protecting sacred sites in the face of unrelenting lobbyists and domestic violence, this manuscript has engaging characters with something to say.
When the Circle Speaks
Lukas Williams
Judges’ Comments:
A blend of memoir and practical guidance, this manuscript offers an honest and powerful approach to intergenerational trauma, recovery and restoration – one that is grounded in lived experience, relationship and cultural wisdom. With compassion and authenticity, it gives readers a contemporary lens into traditional ways of healing and learning that is both personal and profoundly universal.
#Manuscript Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer
Clean
Jing Cramb
Judges’ Comments:
Jing Cram’s stories reveal a writer of remarkable control and purpose. In the service of her sharp insight, Cram’s supple prose can be funny, moving, tense, wistful and surprising, often all in one story. The stories in Clean often take as their subject the migrant experience of living in Australia, beautifully unwrapping the universal within the particular.
The Passion Hunters
Helen Crampton
Judges’ Comments:
Rich in atmosphere and heart, Helen Crampton’s novel explores the complexities of friendship, family, and small-town lore. Set against the breathtaking landscapes of New Zealand, this thoughtful novel explores the complex ethics of hunting, balancing respect for tradition with questions of conservation and ecological responsibility.
Best Served Cold
Sonya Gellert
Judges’ Comments:
Involving and stylish, Sonya Gellert’s food-dunnit Best Served Cold is the reading equivalent of a lemon delicious pudding: rich, slightly tart and decidedly more-ish. Readers of this atmospheric, layered mystery set in the glossy, cut-throat world of high-end restaurant reviewing will leave both satisfied and very hungry.
Crew Cut
Karen Kenny
Judges’ Comments:
Crew Cut by Karen Kenny is a story about unrequited love, longing and dangerous secrets. Thoroughly engaging and beautifully told, Kenny utilises an interesting structure that makes for a propulsive read. At the heart of Crew Cut is a mystery that tantalizingly unravels as this touching novel unfolds.
The Cult
Kate Mayne
Judges’ Comments:
Set against an atmosphere of mounting suspense, Kate Mayne’s gripping novel follows a teenager reeling from the loss of her mother, only to discover she left behind clues tied to a secretive group hidden in plain sight—and a mystery that has haunted the community for generations. A gripping young adult novel filled with suspense, first love, and unforgettable twists.
#Queensland Premier's Young Publisher and Writer Award
Emily Lighezzolo
Judges’ Comments:
As a published author and an emerging publisher with an impressive career trajectory, Emily is already redefining what it means to be talented. The judges found her work to be considered, sharp, observant and drawing on a rich legacy of writing while offering something entirely new and vital. She is simply a contender who offers a future which includes stories of meaning and substance.
Waverley Stanley Jr
Judges’ Comments:
With seven new works in development, Waverley is an accomplished writer and playwright. His work takes snippets of life and puts them under the spotlight to illuminate the nature and complexity of choices and truths. While his writing seems both warm and understated, the technical skills in use to draw audiences in are evident. Waverley’s stated goal of starting his own production company seems inevitable and completely justifiable.
Svetlana Sterlin
Judges’ Comments:
As judges, it’s a privilege to read through award applications, and heartening to know there is even more extraordinary work to come. Svetlana’s growing body of work provides such certainty. Her memoir work is terrific, her poetry impressive and her commitment to supporting other writers and publishing itself is encouraging.
Grace Wilson
Judges’ Comments:
Grace is a playwright who has already achieved some great things. She has a compelling, clear voice and a love of dialogue which imbues her work with meaning. Her plays wrangle with the complexity of relationships and the strange ways life often presents itself. She is a clear and present talent.
#Queensland Premier's Regional Publisher and Writer Award
Ian McIntosh
Judges’ Comments:
As an author and ardent supporter of literacy, Ian’s engagement with regional and remote communities has been recognised at state and national levels. In his role as an independent publisher, his commitment to supporting other authors with production expertise is laudable. His impressive and growing body of work not only reflects the uniqueness and breadth of stories read and produced across Queensland but provides a tangible reminder of the challenges authors and publishers face in getting their work into the hands of readers.
Terry Phillips
Judges’ Comments:
Together with small publishers, micro-publishers provide unique support and essential opportunities for writers across Queensland. Terry’s work supporting writers and publishing speculative fiction for over a decade has made a difference across communities and has helped shape and expand the idea of what the publishing industry looks like in the 21st century. Recognition of and support for such work continues to be vital.
Abi Stephenson
Judges’ Comments:
Abi’s body of work simply stands out. As an essayist, she is insightful, creative and authentic whether writing about tax and economic reform or hyperemesis gravidarum and bathroom bleach-stink. Her energy and support for creativity and creative industries are reflected in her curatorial work and production work, which is substantive.