Victorian Premier's Unpublished Manuscript Award

The Victorian Premier's Unpublished Manuscript Award is a literary award for an unpublished manuscript.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]

Winners and shortlists

Victorian Premier's Unpublished Manuscript Award winners and shortlists

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 [a]	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	Rachel Morton	Panajachel	Winner	[26]
	Hayley Elliott-Ryan	Garbage	Shortlist	[26]
	N. J. Madden	Laughing River	Shortlist	[26]
2025	Chris Ames	I Made This Just for You	Winner	[27]
	Lauren K. Williams	Every Stolen Moment	Shortlist	[28]
	Kat Capel	Heavy Petting	Shortlist	[28]

Notes

1. No award was presented in 2011 due to change in timing.

References

1. "The Award for an Unpublished Manuscript". The Wheeler Centre. Archived from the original on 2017-08-05. Retrieved 2017-08-05.
2. "2005 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards - Matilda". www.middlemiss.org. Archived from the original on 2014-02-01. Retrieved 2013-05-17.
3. "2006 Victorian Premier's Literary Award - Matilda". www.middlemiss.org. Archived from the original on 2014-02-01. Retrieved 2013-05-17.
4. "2007 Victorian Premier's Literary Award Winners - Matilda". www.middlemiss.org. Archived from the original on 2014-02-01. Retrieved 2013-05-17.
5. "2009 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards Shortlists - Matilda". www.middlemiss.org. Archived from the original on 2014-02-01. Retrieved 2013-05-17.
6. "Shortlist Announced: 2015 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript — the Wheeler Centre". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-05-22.
7. "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2017 winners announced". Books+Publishing . 1 February 2017. Archived from the original on 2021-11-29. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
8. "The Award for an Unpublished Manuscript". The Wheeler Centre . Archived from the original on 2018-12-15. Retrieved 2023-02-23.
9. "VPLAs 2019: Manus detainee Boochani wins $100k top prize". Books+Publishing . 1 February 2019. Archived from the original on 2022-03-20. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
10. "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2019 shortlists announced". Books+Publishing. 2018-12-12. Archived from the original on 2018-12-15. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
11. "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2020". The Wheeler Centre. Archived from the original on 2020-03-04. Retrieved 2020-01-31.
12. "Winners of the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2020". Readings Books. Archived from the original on 2023-02-21. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
13. "2020 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards shortlists announced". Books+Publishing . 2019-12-02. Archived from the original on 2020-01-28. Retrieved 2019-12-02.
14. "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2021". The Wheeler Centre. Archived from the original on 2021-02-02. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
15. "Awards: Victorian Prize for Literature". Shelf Awareness . February 4, 2021. Archived from the original on 2022-12-09. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
16. "2021 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards". Locus Online . 2021-02-02. Archived from the original on 2021-03-02. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
17. "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2021 shortlists announced". Books+Publishing . 2020-12-08. Archived from the original on 2020-12-07. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
18. "The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards shortlists 2021". Readings Books. Archived from the original on 2020-12-07. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
19. "Gorrie wins 2022 Victorian Prize for Literature". Books+Publishing. 2022-02-04. Archived from the original on 2022-02-03. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
20. "Winners of the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2022". Readings Books. Archived from the original on 2022-02-03. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
21. "VPLAs 2022 shortlists announced". Books+Publishing. 2021-12-07. Archived from the original on 2021-12-06. Retrieved 2021-12-07.
22. "The 2023 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards". The Wheeler Centre. Archived from the original on 2023-02-03. Retrieved 2023-02-02.
23. "Winners of the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2023". Readings Books. 2 February 2023. Archived from the original on 2023-02-02. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
24. Burke, Kelly (2023-02-02). "Melbourne author Jessica Au wins $125,000 for 'quietly powerful' novella". The Guardian . ISSN   0261-3077. Archived from the original on 2023-02-12. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
25. "PMLAs 2022 winners, 2023 Indie Book Awards longlists, VPLAs shortlists". Books+Publishing . Archived from the original on 2023-02-21. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
26. "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2024 shortlists announced". Books+Publishing. 2023-12-19. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
27. Story, Hannah (2025-03-19). "Growing up, Wanda got old dresses for Xmas. Her book about it just won $125k". ABC News. Retrieved 2025-03-19.
28. "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2025 shortlists announced". Books+Publishing. 2025-01-29. Retrieved 2025-01-29.