We are delighted to announce the shortlisted works for poetry, fiction, nonfiction and children’s works.

Thank you to all writers and publishers who entered work this year. We received a large number of entries in this year’s awards and thank everyone for their patience as our judges read through them all. In Children’s literature we received a particularly broad field of entries from picture books through to YA Fiction and as such will be awarding winners in both the younger and older reader sections.

Across all categories we ask judges to consider which entries stand out in their brilliance and demonstrate the following:

• Literary excellence

• Powerful narrative structure

• Considered and impactful use of language

  The 2024 ACT Literary Award judges this year are Professor Frank Bongiorno, Dr Paul Collis, Dan Hogan, Krys Saclier, Beejay Silcox

The ACT Literary Awards are held annually to recognise and celebrate the achievements of writers from the ACT and surrounding regions. These honours also include the June Shenfield National Poetry Awards, the Anne Edgeworth Fellowship Award, the MARION Fellowship, and The Marion Halligan Award.

We gratefully acknowledge the generous support of the Anderson Pender Foundation which has enabled prizes across all award categories this year. In addition we acknowledge our event partners and supporters Canberra Contemporary Art Space, National Triangle Canberra, Harry Hartog ANU, She Shapes History, and Pulp Book Cafe.

MARION Book Award winners will be announced at the ACT Literary Awards on Thursday 27 June at Canberra Contemporary Art Space.

Tickets to attend the ACT Literary Awards are available HERE. Please be aware there are a limited number of tickets available due to venue constraints so be quick!