Queensland Literary Awards

Queensland Literary Awards – now open

The 2019 awards are open and offer a total prize pool of $253,500. 

There are ten national prizes for outstanding books by Australian writers, illustrators and creators. This includes the $25,000 Queensland Premier’s Award for a work of State Significance which highlights a uniquely Queensland story. Nominations close 31 May 2019. $10 Early Bird discount available for nominations received in April. Some fee-exemptions also apply.  

There are two unpublished manuscripts awards – the Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer and the David Unaipon Award for an Emerging Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Writer.  Nominations close 30 June 2019 and there is no fee to apply.

There are development awards for Queensland writers - two Queensland Premier's Young Publishers and Writers Awards and three Queensland Writers Fellowships. Nominations close 30 June 2019 and there is no fee to apply. 

Awards and prizes

Published book awards

• Queensland Premier's Award for a work of State Significance – $25,000
• The University of Queensland Fiction Book Award – $15,000
• The University of Queensland Non-Fiction Book Award – $15,000
• Griffith University Young Adult Book Award – $15,000
• Griffith University Children’s Book Award – $15,000
• QUT Digital Literature Award – $15,000
• University of Southern Queensland History Book Award – $10,000
• University of Southern Queensland Steele Rudd Award for a Short Story Collection – $10,000
• Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection – $10,000
• The Courier-Mail People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award – $10,000

Unpublished manuscript and development awards 

• Queensland Writers Fellowships – $19,500
• David Unaipon Award for an Emerging Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Writer – $15,000
• Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer – $15,000
• Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Awards – $12,500

Stay up to date with the 2019 program by following the Queensland Literary Awards on Facebook and Twitter.  

To contact the State Library of Queensland about the Queensland Literary Awards, please email qla@slq.qld.gov.au.

Principal benefactors

The Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer is supported by Jenny Summerson through the Queensland Library Foundation.

A Queensland Writers Fellowship is supported by Crowd Giving 2018 donors through the Queensland Library Foundation.