Victorian Premier's Literary Awards

The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards were created by the Victorian Government with the aim of raising the profile of contemporary creative writing and Australia's publishing industry. As of 2013, it is reportedly Australia's richest literary prize with the top winner receiving A$125,000 and category winners A$25,000 each.[1]

The awards were established in 1985 by John Cain, Premier of Victoria, to mark the centenary of the births of Vance and Nettie Palmer, two of Australia's best-known writers and critics who made significant contributions to Victorian and Australian literary culture.

From 1986 till 1997, the awards were presented as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival. In 1997 their administration was transferred to the State Library of Victoria.[2] By 2004, the total prize money was A$180,000. In 2011, stewardship was taken over by the Wheeler Centre.

Winners 2011–present

Beginning in 2011,[3] the awards were restructured into 5 categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Drama and Young People's. The winner of each receives $25,000. Of those 5 winners, one is chosen as the overall winner of the Victorian Prize for Literature and receives an additional $100,000. There are two other categories with different prize amounts: an honorary People's Choice Award voted on by readers, and a Unpublished Manuscript Award with a prize amount of $15,000.[1]

Shortlists are maintained in the main article for each category.

Victorian Prize for Literature

Fiction
Main article: Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction

Nonfiction
Main article: Victorian Premier's Prize for Nonfiction
  • 1990–2010 see Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-fiction
  • 2011 Mark McKenna, An Eye for Eternity: The Life Of Manning Clark
  • 2012 Bill Gammage, The Biggest Estate on Earth
  • 2013 No award
  • 2014 Henry Reynolds, Forgotten War
  • 2015 Alan Atkinson, The Europeans in Australia: Volume Three: Nation
  • 2016 Gerald Murnane, Something for the Pain
  • 2017 Madeline Gleeson, Offshore: Behind the Wire on Manus
  • 2018 Sarah Krasnostein, The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman's Extraordinary Life in Death, Decay & Disaster
  • 2019 Behrouz Boochani, No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison[11]
  • 2020 Christina Thompson, Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia[12]
  • 2021 Paddy Manning, Body Count: How Climate Change is Killing Us[13]

Poetry
Main article: Victorian Premier's Prize for Poetry

Writing for Young Adults
Main article: Victorian Premier's Prize for Writing for Young Adults

Drama
Main article: Victorian Premier's Prize for Drama

People's Choice Award
  • 2011 Anna Krien, Into The Woods: The Battle for Tasmania's Forests[4]
  • 2012 Aidan Fennessy, National Interest[5]
  • 2013 Presented in January 2014 (see 2014 entry) for books published in 2013
  • 2014 Hannah Kent, Burial Rites[6]
  • 2015 Tim Low, Where Song Began
  • 2016 Miles Allinson, Fever of Animals
  • 2017 Randa Abdel-Fattah, When Michael met Mina
  • 2018 Alison Evans, Ida
  • 2019 Bri Lee, Eggshell Skull
  • 2020 Chloe Higgins, The Girls[12]
  • 2021 Louise Milligan, Witness: An Investigation into the Brutal Cost of Seeking Justice[13]

Victorian Premier's Unpublished Manuscript Award
Main article: Victorian Premier's Unpublished Manuscript Award

Prize for Indigenous Writing
Main article: Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Indigenous Writing

Defunct award categories (1985–2010)

From 1985 to 2010 prizes were offered in some or all of the below categories.

See also

Notes
  1. Jason Steger (28 January 2014). "Liquid Nitrogen poet Jennifer Maiden wins Australia's richest literature prize". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  2. http://www.slv.vic.gov.au
  3. Zora Sanders (21 April 2011). "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards to be the Richest in Australia". Meanjin. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  4. "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2011". Victorian Premier's Literary Awards. 2011. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  5. "21 big names. One big decision. Start reading". Victorian Premier's Literary Awards. 2012. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  6. "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2014". Victorian Premier's Literary Awards. 2014. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  7. "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2015". Victorian Premier's Literary Awards. 2015. Retrieved 20 March 2016.
  8. "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2016". Victorian Premier's Literary Awards. 2016. Retrieved 20 March 2016.
  9. Steger, Jason (31 January 2017). "Victorian Premier's Literary Award 2017 winners: Georgia Blain wins posthumous prize". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
  10. Harmon, Steph (1 February 2018). "Sarah Krasnostein wins $125,000 at Australia's richest literary prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  11. "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2019". The Wheeler Centre. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  12. "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2020". The Wheeler Centre. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
  13. "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2021". The Wheeler Centre. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  14. "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2018". The Wheeler Centre. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  15. "Congratulations to Melissa Lucashenko: Victorian Premier's Literary Awards". Griffith Review. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
  16. "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2017". The Wheeler Centre. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
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