We are stoked to learn that three JdM authors are on the 2026 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards shortlist!
The Prime Minister’s Literary Awards acknowledge the contribution of Australian literature to the nation’s cultural and intellectual life.
Director of Writing Australia, Wenona Byrne, said: “The 2026 shortlists reflect the extraordinary breadth, ambition and quality of writing being produced across Australia. These works invite us into new ideas, experiences and perspectives, while demonstrating the enduring power of literature to deepen our understanding of ourselves and one another.”
In the Children’s literature category, Little Bones by Sandy Bigna (University of Queensland Press) has been shortlisted, with the judges saying; ‘Rippling through this horror-tinged story is an affecting portrait of friendship between children on the margins. Bones lives with her Nona while her mother works away on the mines, and her father is barely a rumour. As her school friends keep their distance, the too-loud, too-bright Tenny moves into Bones’ block of flats in a rainbow-striped jumpsuit and soccer boots. The two outsiders become allies on a quest that means everything to Bones. Little Bones is spare, strange and emotionally resonant, holding grief, loneliness and hope in careful balance.’
This Stays Between Us by Margot McGovern (Penguin Random House Australia) was recognised in the Young Adult literature category. Judes said; ‘McGovern casts an unflinching gaze on a period when pop culture was laced with misogyny, skilfully using the very genre responsible for fetishising violence against women to examine and eviscerate it. The result is a perfectly executed thriller: eerie, self-aware, socially sharp and powered by girls who demand to be more than victims.’
And finally, in the Australian History category – Judith Brett’s Fearless Beatrice Faust: Sex, Feminism and Body Politics (Text Publishing) with judges praising; ‘Judith Brett’s biography of Beatrice Faust is a scrupulously researched and illuminating account of a provocative, creative feminist intellectual and activist. Working from diaries, family papers, correspondence and notebooks, Brett reconstructs Faust’s life with fine detail, intellectual sympathy and rich insight. One of the book’s great strengths is the way it integrates Faust’s private life with her public commitments, tracing the importance she attached to bodily experience and connecting this to her activism on abortion, sex and drug addiction … With an engaging narrative and enviable distillation, Fearless Beatrice Faust chronicles a life at the forefront of public debate and draws attention to the labour of social transformation: thinking, writing, arguing, organising and agitating. It is a book of sharp focus, compassionate insight and intellectual rigour.’
The winners of the 2026 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards will be announced on Thursday 10 September 2026 at a prestigious ceremony held at the National Library of Australia in Canberra. The Awards offer writers access to Australia’s richest annual literary prizes, offering a total tax-free prize pool of $600,000. Winners receive $80,000 tax-free per category, and up to four shortlisted entries in each category receive $5,000 tax-free.
Huge congratulations to our authors, and everyone recognised!
