The Victorian Premier's Unpublished Manuscript Award is a literary award for an unpublished manuscript. It can be entered by any author from the Australian State of Victoria that has not published a project based on fiction.
The Award was established by the State Library of Australia in 2003. In 2011 administration of the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards changed to the Wheeler Centre. As of 2017 is valued at A$15,000. [1]
Year | Author | Title | Result | |
---|---|---|---|---|
2003 | Carrie Tiffany | Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living | Winner | |
2004 | Angela Savage | Thai Died | Winner | |
2005 | Peter Barry | I Hate Martin Amis et al. | Winner | [2] |
2006 | Andrew Hutchinson | Rohypnol | Winner | [3] |
2007 | Nick Gadd | The Ghost Writer | Winner | [4] |
2008 | Mandy Maroney | Going Finish | Winner | |
Daniel Ducrou | Conditions of Return | Shortlist | ||
Robert Power | In Search of the Blue Tiger | Shortlist | ||
2009 | Amy Espeseth | Sufficient Grace | Winner | [5] |
Catherine Harris | Like Being a Wife | Shortlist | ||
Lisa Jacobson | The Sunlit Zone | Shortlist | ||
2010 | Peggy Frew | House of Sticks | Winner | |
Andrew Nette | Cambodia Darkness and Light | Shortlist | ||
Michelle Aung Thin | Winsome of Rangoon (published as The Monsoon Bride) | Shortlist | ||
2012 [lower-alpha 1] | Graeme Simsion | The Rosie Project | Winner | |
Rose Mulready | The Day We Lost The Moon | Shortlist | ||
Stephen Samuel | Strange Eventful History | Shortlist | ||
Clive Wansbrough | The Twoway Boy | Honorable mention | ||
2013 | Maxine Beneba Clarke | Foreign Soil | Winner | |
Naomi Bailey | A Field Guide to Birdwatching in Bad Weather | Shortlist | ||
Emily Bitto | The Strays | Shortlist | ||
Kirsten Alexander | Dreams | Commended | ||
Beverly Almeida | Hijrotic | Commended | ||
Matt Davies | Fire and Icecream | Commended | ||
Leah De Forest | The Borrowed River | Commended | ||
Vince Leigh | Baroque Days | Commended | ||
Stuart McCullough | Goodsir | Commended | ||
2014 | Miles Allinson | Fever of Animals | Winner | |
Jennifer Down | Our Magic Hour | Shortlist | ||
JM Green | Good Money | Shortlist | ||
Jane Abbott | Watershed | Commended | ||
Caitlin Crowley | Headland | Commended | ||
Zoe Morrison | Some Thoughts on Music and Freedom (published as Music and Freedom) | Commended | ||
Victoria Osborne | Man of Clay | Commended | ||
Genevieve Poetka | Winter Traffic | Commended | ||
Yannick Thoraval | The Current | Commended | ||
2015 | Jane Harper | The Dry | Winner | [6] |
Jim McIntyre | Nikolai the Perfect | Shortlist | [6] | |
Michelle Wright | Fine | Shortlist | [6] | |
Lucinda Berg | The Kafka Papers: The Revised Memoirs of Max Brod | Commended | [6] | |
Alice Bishop | A Constant Hum | Commended | [6] | |
Chris Mooney-Singh | Foreign Madam and the White Yogi | Commended | [6] | |
Kerry Munnery | Unhomely Places | Commended | [6] | |
Imbi Neeme | The Hidden Drawer | Commended | [6] | |
2016 | Melanie Cheng | Australia Day | Winner | [7] [8] |
Jay Carmichael | Ironbark | Shortlist | ||
Susan Johnston | Wildgirl | Shortlist | ||
Jacquie Byron | Trouble Sleeping | Commended | ||
Chris Quigley | Failed Manhood | Commended | ||
Mark Brandi | To Skin a Rabbit (published as Wimmera) | Commended | ||
2017 | Christian White | Decay Theory | Winner | |
Kaz Kilmore-Barrymore | Truth Untold | Shortlist | ||
Laura Stortenbeker | Low Light | Shortlist | ||
Terry Donnelly | Hey Luna and Other Stories | Commended | ||
R. W. R. McDonald | The Nancys | Commended | ||
2019 | Victoria Hannan | Kokomo | Winner | [9] |
John Byron | Wedding Cake Island | Shortlist | [10] | |
Wayne Marshall | Frontier Sport | Shortlist | [10] | |
2020 | Rhett Davis | Hovering | Winner | [11] [12] |
Allee Richards | In Real Life | Shortlist | [11] [13] | |
Emily Spurr | A Million Things | Shortlist | [11] [13] | |
2021 | André Dao | Anam | Winner | [14] [15] [16] |
Neela Janakiramanan | On A Knife's Edge | Shortlist | [17] [18] | |
Jessica Zhan Mei Yu | But the Girl | Shortlist | [17] [18] | |
J.R. Burgmann | Children of Tomorrow | Commended | [17] [18] | |
Patrick Hunn | Goblins | Commended | [17] [18] | |
Kylie Mirmohamadi | The Guest House | Commended | [17] [18] | |
2022 | Keshe Chow | Fauna of Mirrors | Winner | [19] [20] |
Abbey Lay | Lead Us Not | Finalist | [21] | |
Nina Wan | The Albatross | Finalist | [21] | |
C. J. Garrow | Orangutan Ballet | Commended | [21] | |
Elliot J. Han | The Echoes of George Street | Commended | [21] | |
Soja Pitt | Strange Intersections | Commended | [21] | |
2023 | Mick Cummins | One Divine Night | Winner | [22] [23] [24] |
Amy Brown | Stillwater | Shortlist | [22] [25] | |
Ruby Todd | Bright Objects | Shortlist | [22] [25] | |
2024 | Hayley Elliott-Ryan | Garbage | Shortlist | [26] |
N. J. Madden | Laughing River | Shortlist | [26] | |
Rachel Morton | Panajachel | Shortlist | [26] |
The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards were created by the Victorian Government with the aim of raising the profile of contemporary creative writing and Australia's publishing industry. As of 2013, it is reportedly Australia's richest literary prize with the top winner receiving A$125,000 and category winners A$25,000 each.
Carrie Tiffany is an English-born Australian novelist and former park ranger.
The Victorian Premier's Prize for Poetry, formerly known as the C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry, is a prize category in the annual Victorian Premier's Literary Award. As of 2011 it has an enumeration of A$25,000. The winner of this category prize vies with 4 other category winners for overall Victorian Prize for Literature valued at an additional A$100,000.
Randa Abdel-Fattah is an Australian writer of fiction and non-fiction. She is an advocate for Palestinian people and human rights in general, and much of her work focuses on identity and what it means to be Muslim in Australia. Her debut novel, Does My Head Look Big in This?, was published in 2005, and Coming of Age in the War on Terror was published in 2021.
The Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction, formerly known as the Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction, is a prize category in the annual Victorian Premier's Literary Award. As of 2011 it has an remuneration of A$25,000. The winner of this category prize vies with 4 other category winners for overall Victorian Prize for Literature valued at an additional A$100,000.
The Victorian Premier's Prize for Nonfiction, formerly known as the Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction, is a prize category in the annual Victorian Premier's Literary Award. As of 2011 it has a remuneration of A$25,000. The winner of this category prize vies with 4 other category winners for overall Victorian Prize for Literature valued at an additional A$100,000.
The Victorian Premier's Prize for Writing for Young Adults, formerly known as the Victorian Premier's Prize for Young Adult Fiction, is a prize category in the annual Victorian Premier's Literary Award. As of 2011 it has an enumeration of A$25,000. The winner of this category prize vies with 4 other category winners for overall Victorian Prize for Literature valued at an additional A$100,000.
Hannah Kent is an Australian writer, known for two novels – Burial Rites (2013) and The Good People (2016). Her third novel, Devotion, was published in 2021.
Fiona Kelly McGregor is an Australian writer, performance artist, and art critic whose third novel, Indelible Ink, won the 2011 The Age Book of the Year Award.
Emily Bitto is an Australian writer. Her debut novel The Strays won the 2015 Stella Prize for Australian women's writing.
Ellen van Neerven is an Aboriginal Australian writer, educator and editor. Their first work of fiction, Heat and Light (2013), won several awards, and in 2019 Van Neerven won the Queensland Premier's Young Publishers and Writers Award. Their second collection of poetry, Throat (2020), won three awards at the 2021 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, including Book of the Year.
The Victorian Premier's Prize for Drama is a prize category in the annual Victorian Premier's Literary Awards. The winner of this category prize vies with four other category winners for overall Victorian Prize for Literature.
Jane Harper is a British–Australian author known for her crime novels The Dry, Force of Nature and The Lost Man, all set in rural Australia.
R.W.R McDonald is a New Zealand author, living in Melbourne, Australia best known for his crime novels The Nancys. and Nancy Business
Charmaine Papertalk Green is an Indigenous Australian poet. As Charmaine Green she works as a visual and installation artist.
The Victorian Premier's Prize for Indigenous Writing is a prize category in the annual Victorian Premier's Literary Award. The award commenced in 2004 and in 2012 the prize was valued at A$20,000. The winner of this category prize competes with the other category winners for overall Victorian Prize for Literature valued at an additional A$100,000. Nominees are allowed to enter other categories of the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards.
Evelyn Araluen is an Australian poet and literary editor. She won the 2022 Stella Prize with her first book, Dropbear.
Louisa C. Lim is a journalist and author. She is the co-host of The Little Red Podcast, a podcast covering China.
Jennifer Down is an Australian novelist and short story writer. She won the 2022 Miles Franklin Award for her novel Bodies of Light.
Jessica Au is an Australian editor and bookseller, and author of the novels Cargo and Cold Enough for Snow. Au won the inaugural Novel Prize in 2022. She is based in Melbourne.