An array of Australian literary works have been shortlisted for the 2021 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards.
The Awards acknowledge the significant contribution literature, history and poetry have in connecting us to Australian voices and our story as a nation.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said this year’s shortlists celebrated Australia’s talented literary sector in a year when so many Australians turned to reading.
‘Australia’s storytellers and historians have provided a place for reflection as we have faced the ongoing challenges of the pandemic,’ the Prime Minister said.
The Prime Minister will announce the final winners of the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards in December 2021.
The 2021 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards Shortlist:
Fiction
- A Treacherous Country, K.M. Kruimink, Allen & Unwin
- In the Time of Foxes, Jo Lennan, Simon & Schuster: Scribner Australia
- Lucky’s, Andrew Pippos, Pan Macmillan: Picador Australia
- The Bass Rock, Evie Wyld, Penguin Random House: Vintage
- The Labyrinth, Amanda Lohrey, Text Publishing
Non-fiction
- Flight Lines: Across the Globe on a Journey with the Astonishing Ultramarathon Birds, Andrew Darby, Allen & Unwin
- The Altar Boys, Suzanne Smith, HarperCollins Publishing: ABC Books
- The Details: On Love, Death and Reading, Tegan Bennett Daylight, Simon & Schuster: Scribner Australia
- The Stranger Artist: Life at the Edge of Kimberley Painting, Quentin Sprague, Hardie Grant Publishing
- Truganini: Journey Through the Apocalypse, Cassandra Pybus, Allen & Unwin
Australian history
- Ceremony Men: Making Ethnography and the Return of the Strehlow Collection, Jason M. Gibson, State University of New York Press
- Pathfinders: A History of Aboriginal Trackers in NSW, Michael Bennett, NewSouth Publishing
- People of the River: Lost Worlds of Early Australia, Grace Karskens, Allen & Unwin
- Representing Australian Aboriginal Music and Dance 1930-1970, Amanda Harris, Bloomsbury Publishing
- The Convict Valley: The Bloody Struggle on Australia's Early Frontier, Mark Dunn, Allen & Unwin
Poetry
- Change Machine, Jaya Savige, University of Queensland Press
- Homer Street, Laurie Duggan, Giramondo Publishing
- Nothing to Declare, Mags Webster, Puncher & Wattmann
- Shorter Lives, John A. Scott, Puncher & Wattmann
- The Strangest Place, New and Selected Poems, Stephen Edgar, Black Pepper
Children’s literature
- Fly on the Wall, Remy Lai, Walker Books Australia,
- How to Make a Bird, Meg McKinlay, illustrated by Matt Ottley, Walker Books Australia
- The January Stars, Kate Constable, Allen & Unwin
- The Stolen Prince of Cloudburst, Jaclyn Moriarty, illustrated by Kelly Canby, Allen & Unwin
- The Year the Maps Changed, Danielle Binks, Hachette Australia: Lothian Children’s Books
Young adult literature
- Loner, Georgina Young, Text Publishing
- Metal Fish, Falling Snow, Cath Moore, Text Publishing
- The End of the World is Bigger than Love, Davina Bell, Text Publishing
- The F Team, Rawah Arja, Giramondo Publishing
- When Rain Turns to Snow, Jane Godwin, Hachette Australia: Lothian Children’s Books