Announcing the shortlists for the 2025 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards
Creative Australia has today revealed the shortlist for the 2025 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, the richest literary prize in the nation. The awards celebrate the exceptional talents of emerging and established Australian writers, illustrators, poets, and historians.
The Prime Minister’s Literary Awards acknowledge the contribution of Australian literature to the nation’s cultural and intellectual life. This marks the third year Creative Australia has delivered the awards, following the release of the Australian Government’s 2023 National Cultural Policy, Revive: a place for every story, a story for every place.
Expert judging panels have carefully considered entries for the awards to select the final shortlists, including:
Fiction
- Always Will Be: Stories of Goori sovereignty from the futures of the Tweed
by Mykaela Saunders (University of Queensland Press) - Highway 13 by Fiona McFarlane (Allen & Unwin) *
- Juice by Tim Winton (Penguin Random House)
- Rapture by Emily Maguire (Allen & Unwin)
- Theory & Practice by Michelle de Kretser (Text Publishing).
[Books marked * above have been reviewed by QRC. Click on the title to read our review].
The winners of the 2025 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards will be announced on Monday 29 September at a prestigious ceremony held at the National Library of Australia in Canberra. Both the winners and the shortlisted authors will share in a tax-free prize pool of $600,000, making it the richest literary prize in Australia. Each shortlisted entry will receive $5,000 with the winner of each category receiving $80,000.
For more information on all the shortlists, including judging panel comments, please visit: Prime Minister’s Literary Awards on the Creative Australia website.