2025 Queensland Literary Awards winners

Queensland Premier's Awards for a Work of State Significance

$30,000 | Supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.

WINNER
Black Witness
by Amy McQuire
University of Queensland Press

FINALISTS
Australian Gospel: A Family Saga by Lech Blaine (Black Inc.) 
Everything is Water by Simon Cleary (University of Queensland Press) 
Yanga Mother by Cheryl Leavy and Christopher Bassi (University of Queensland Press) 
Warra Warra Wai: How Indigenous Australians discovered Captain Cook, and what they tell about the coming of the Ghost People by Darren Rix and Craig Cormick (Scribner Australia, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Australia)

Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer

$15,000 plus publication with University of Queensland Press | Supported by Jenny Summerson through the Queensland Library Foundation.

WINNER
“Commonplaces”             
by Gillian Hagenus

FINALISTS
“The Curse” by Bronte Coates
“Easy Living” by Mindy Gill
“The Burning Season” by Karen Lee
“The Lyrebirds” by Dani Ringrose

Children’s Book Award

$15,000 | Supported by the Queensland Library Foundation.

WINNER
Little Bones
by Sandy Bigna
University of Queensland Press

FINALISTS
Thunderhead by Sophie Beer (Allen & Unwin)
Spirit of the Crocodile by Aaron Fa'Aoso and Michelle Scott Tucker with Lyn White (Allen & Unwin)
All the Beautiful Things by Katrina Nannestad (HarperCollins Publishers)
Summer of Shipwrecks by Shivaun Plozza (University of Queensland Press)

Young Adult Book Award

$15,000 | Supported by Susan Hocking and Ian Mackie, and their family.

WINNER
Don't Let the Forest In  
by CG Drews               
Hachette Australia

FINALISTS
Return to Sender by Lauren Draper (Pan Macmillan Australia)
My Brother, Finch by Kate Gordon (Riveted Press) 
Into the Mouth of the Wolf by Erin Gough (Hardie Grant Children's Publishing)
Liar's Test by Ambelin Kwaymullina (Text Publishing)

Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection

$17,500 | Supported by Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.

WINNER
The Oblong Plot
by Chris Andrews
Puncher & Wattmann

FINALISTS
Tintinnabulum by Judith Beveridge (Giramondo Publishing)
Kangaroo Unbound by Luke Johnson (Puncher & Wattmann)
The Infant Vine by Isabella G. Mead (UWA Publishing)
Mixed Business by Alan Wearne (Puncher & Wattmann)

David Unaipon Award for an Emerging Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Writer

$20,000 plus publication with University of Queensland Press | Supported by Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.

WINNER
“Finding Billy Brown”
by E.M. Crismani

FINALISTS
“Eskos” by Vika Mana
“Neurodiverging Into [He]ARTS” by BS Windon

The University of Queensland Fiction Book Award

$15,000 | Sponsored by The University of Queensland.

WINNER
Rapture
by Emily Maguire
Allen & Unwin

FINALISTS
Nightingale by Laura Elvery (University of Queensland Press)
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (Penguin Random House Australia) 
Little World: A Novel by Josephine Rowe (Black Inc.)
Out of the Woods by Gretchen Shirm (Transit Lounge)

The University of Queensland Non-Fiction Book Award

$15,000 | Sponsored by The University of Queensland.

WINNER
Näku Dhäruk The Bark Petitions: How the People of Yirrkala Changed the Course of Australian Democracy
by Clare Wright
Text Publishing

FINALISTS
Black Convicts: How slavery shaped Australia by Santilla Chingaipe (Scribner Australia, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Australia)
The Season by Helen Garner (Text Publishing)
Murriyang: Song of Time by Stan Grant (Bundyi, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Australia) 
Warra Warra Wai: How Indigenous Australians discovered Captain Cook, and what they tell about the coming of the Ghost People by Darren Rix and Craig Cormick (Scribner Australia, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Australia)

The Courier-Mail People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award

$15,000 | Sponsored by The Courier-Mail.

WINNER
Nightingale
by Laura Elvery
University of Queensland Press

FINALISTS

Everything is Water by Simon Cleary (University of Queensland Press)
Dirrayawadha by Anita Heiss (Simon & Schuster Australia)
Annette Kellerman, Australian Mermaid by Grantlee Kieza (HarperCollins Publishers)
Black Witness by Amy McQuire (University of Queensland Press)
Red Dirt Blue Lights by Tess Merlin (AndAlso Books)
First Name Second Name by Steve MinOn (University of Queensland Press)
Bina: First Nations Languages, Old and New by Gari Tudor-Smith,  Paul Williams,  Felicity Meakins (La Trobe University Press in conjunction with Black Inc.)