Finalists announced
Congratulations to the finalists for the Queensland Literary Awards 2021!
The Queensland Literary Awards celebrate outstanding writers from Queensland and around Australia, across published and unpublished categories. The awards also offer fellowships and development awards for Queensland writers, and emerging Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander writers, Australia-wide.
Stay up to date by following the Queensland Literary Awards on Twitter and Facebook.
Winners’ announcements livestream
The winners’ announcements will be livestreamed on State Library’s website and Facebook Live on 6pm Thursday 9 September 2021. Register now.
Voting now open
Voting is open until 5pm Monday 16 August for The Courier-Mail People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award. Vote now.
On this page:
- Queensland Premier's Award for a work of State Significance
- Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Award
- The University of Queensland Fiction Book Award
- The University of Queensland Non-Fiction Book Award
- Children's Book Award
- Griffith University Young Adult Book Award
- University of Southern Queensland Steele Rudd Award for a Short Story Collection
- Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection
- David Unaipon Award for an Emerging Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Writer
- Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer
- The Courier-Mail People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award
Queensland Premier's Award for a work of State Significance
$25,000 | Supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland
Car Crash
Lech Blaine
Black Inc.
Ordinary Matter
Laura Elvery
University of Queensland Press
Biting the Clouds
Fiona Foley
University of Queensland Press
A Question of Colour
Pattie Lees with Adam C Lees
Magabala Books
Change Machine
Jaya Savige
University of Queensland Press
Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Award
$12,500 each (two awards) | Supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland
Rebecca Cheers
Allanah Hunt
Jonathan O’Brien
Ellen Wengert
The University of Queensland Fiction Book Award
$15,000 | Supported by The University of Queensland
Friends & Dark Shapes
Kavita Bedford
Text Publishing
Revenge
S. L. Lim
Transit Lounge
The Labyrinth
Amanda Lohrey
Text Publishing
The Last Migration
Charlotte McConaghy
Penguin Random House
Song of the Crocodile
Nardi Simpson
Hachette Australia
The University of Queensland Non-Fiction Book Award
$15,000 | Supported by The University of Queensland
Car Crash
Lech Blaine
Black Inc
Into the Loneliness
Eleanor Hogan
NewSouth Publishing
Truth-Telling
Henry Reynolds
NewSouth Publishing
Amnesia Road
Luke Stegemann
NewSouth Publishing
The Carbon Club
Marian Wilkinson
Allen & Unwin
Children’s Book Award
$15,000 | Supported by Susan Hocking and Ian Mackie, and their family, through The Hocking Mackie Trust at APS Foundation
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dangerous Animals
Sami Bayly
Hachette Australia
How to Make a Bird
Meg McKinlay and illustrated by Matt Ottley
Walker Books Australia
The Stolen Prince of Cloudburst
Jaclyn Moriarty and illustrated by Kelly Canby
Allen & Unwin
We Are Wolves
Katrina Nannestad and illustrated by Martina Heiduczek
ABC Books
Bindi
Kirli Saunders and illustrated by Dub Leffler
Magabala Books
Griffith University Young Adult Book Award
$15,000 | Supported by Griffith University
The End of the World is Bigger than Love
Davina Bell
Text Publishing
Tiger Daughter
Rebecca Lim
Allen & Unwin
The Boy from the Mish
Gary Lonesborough
Allen & Unwin
Metal Fish, Falling Snow
Cath Moore
Text Publishing
The Erasure Initiative
Lili Wilkinson
Allen & Unwin
Library Shop
Read the stories for yourself! Find them in The Library Shop.
University of Southern Queensland Steele Rudd Award for a Short Story Collection
$15,000 | Supported University of Southern Queensland
Ordinary Matter
Laura Elvery
University of Queensland Press
Smokehouse
Melissa Manning
University of Queensland Press
Smart Ovens for Lonely People
Elizabeth Tan
Brio Books
Born Into This
Adam Thompson
University of Queensland Press
Broken Rules and Other Stories
Barry Lee Thompson
Transit Lounge
Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection
$15,000 | Supported by Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund
Drop Bear
Evelyn Araluen
University of Queensland Press
Airplane Baby Banana Blanket
Benjamin Dodds
Recent Work Press
Change Machine
Jaya Savige
University of Queensland Press
Homecoming
Elfie Shiosaki
Magabala Books
Terminally Poetic
Ouyang Yu
Ginninderra Press
David Unaipon Award for an Emerging Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Writer
$15,000 | Supported by Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund
'Mekauwe= Tears Volume #1 (Notes For Song) 1970-2020'
Ngankiburka-mekauwe (Senior Woman-of Water) Georgina Williams
'Politiks'
Chella Goldwin
Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer
$15,000 | Supported by Jenny Summerson through the Queensland Library Foundation
'On the Exhale'
Jason Gent
'The Whitewash'
Siang Lu
'The Luminous Heart'
Natalie Sprite
'It’s Chemical'
Lillian Telford
The Courier-Mail People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award
$10,000 | Supported by The Courier-Mail
All Our Shimmering Skies
Trent Dalton
Harper Collins Publishers
With My Little Eye
Sandra Hogan
Allen & Unwin
Flyaway
Kathleen Jennings
Picador Australia
From Where I Fell
Susan Johnson
Allen & Unwin
Banks
Grantlee Keiza
ABC Books
A Question of Colour
Pattie Lees with Adam C Lees
Magabala Books
Mary’s Last Dance
Mary Li
Penguin Random House
All the Murmuring Bones
A. G. Slatter
Titan Books
Major partners
Category sponsors
Principal benefactors
The Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer is supported by Jenny Summerson through the Queensland Library Foundation.
Children's Book Award is supported by Susan Hocking and Ian Mackie, and their family, through The Hocking Mackie Trust at APS Foundation.
The Queensland Writers Fellowships are supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland and State Library of Queensland.
Supporters
Help support writers
The Queensland Literary Awards are supported through the Queensland Library Foundation. You can be part of this celebration of literature and help nurture Australian writers at all stages of their careers.
Find the finalists in your library
Borrow the books from State Library or find them in your local public library.
More QLA Awards
Vote for your favourite!
Queensland Writers Fellowship
