Talented poets, authors and playwrights from across the country have been celebrated through the 2024 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.
Melbourne-based poet Grace Yee was awarded Australia’s richest literary prize for her debut collection Chinese Fish. Yee was presented the $100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature, as well as the $25,000 Award for Poetry.
A family saga spanning the 1960s to the 1980s, Yee’s collection tells a multigenerational story, focusing on the migration experience through the lives of women and girls. The judges commended the work for how it “braids its modes and forms, its feminist vision, and its literary and conceptual sophistication.”
Miles Franklin Literary Award-winning author Melissa Lukashenko was awarded the Prize for Fiction for her searing novel Edenglassie. Judges said Edenglassie offered an example of ‘luminescent truth telling’ that shines a light on the true colonial history of this country.
The Prize for Non-Fiction was awarded to Ellen van Neerven for Personal Score: Sport, culture, identity, which judges called a ‘ground-breaking book that confirms, once again, van Neerven’s unrivalled talent, courage and originality’.
Journalist, radio broadcaster and writer Daniel Browning was awarded the Prize for Indigenous Writing for Close to the Subject: Selected Works. The work was hailed as an ‘astounding contribution to arts journalism’ by the judges.
The graphic novel Ghost Book by Brisbane-based author and illustrator Remy Lai won the Prize for Children’s Literature. Judges noted that Ghost Book’s ‘pacing, imagery and text flawlessly combine to create a memorable interactive reading experience of wide appeal’.
Last awarded in 1995, the Children’s Literature category was re-introduced in 2024 to celebrate works written for children up to age 12.
Melbourne writer Lili Wilkinson was awarded the Prize for Writing for Young Adults for A Hunger of Thorns, a fantasy novel exploring female friendship that was praised by the judges for its ‘strong feminist lens’.
Dramatists S. Shakthidharan and Eamon Flack were awarded the Prize for Drama for The Jungle and the Sea, which the judges described as a ‘a rich and essential work of contemporary theatre’.
The much-anticipated Prize for an Unpublished Manuscript was awarded to Panajachel by Rachel Morton, a writer from south-west Victoria. The judges noted that ‘in a meditative and hypnotic style, Morton has drawn in-depth characters with complex relationships’.
The publicly voted People’s Choice Award went to Anthony Lowenstein for The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World.
Winners for the awards for Fiction, Non-fiction, Drama, Poetry, Indigenous writing, Writing for Young Adults and Children’s Literature each receive $25,000 in prize money, and the winner for the Unpublished Manuscript Award receives $15,000.
The Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards were established the Victorian Government in 1985 to honour literary achievement by Australian writers. Since 2011 The Wheeler Centre has managed the awards on behalf of the Victorian Government.
For the full list of winning works, shortlisted titles and highly commended entries, visit the Wheeler Centre website.
2024 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award winners
Victorian Premier’s Prize for Literature
Chinese Fish by Grace Yee (Giramondo Publishing)
Prize for Children’s Literature
Ghost Book by Remy Lai (Allen & Unwin)
Prize for Drama
The Jungle and the Sea by S. Shakthidharan and Eamon Flack (Currency Press in association with Belvoir St Theatre)
Prize for Fiction
Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko (University of Queensland Press)
Prize for Indigenous Writing
Close to the Subject: Selected Works by Daniel Browning (Magabala Books)
Prize for Non-Fiction
Personal Score: Sport, culture, identity by Ellen van Neerven (University of Queensland Press)
Prize for Poetry
Chinese Fish by Grace Yee (Giramondo Publishing)
Prize for Writing for Young Adults
A Hunger of Thorns by Lili Wilkinson (Allen & Unwin)
Prize for an Unpublished Manuscript
Panajachel by Rachel Morton
People’s Choice Award
The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World by Antony Loewenstein (Scribe Publications)