Shortlist Announced
We are delighted to announce the shortlisted works for poetry, fiction, nonfiction and children’s works.
MARION is delighted to announce the shortlist of the 2025 ACT Literary Awards. The ACT Literary Awards are held annually to recognise and celebrate the achievements of writers from the ACT and surrounding regions. This year these honours will also include the June Shenfield National Poetry Awards, the Anne Edgeworth Fellowship Award, the inaugural Finding Beauty Poetry Prize, Canberra Airport Recognition Award for Literacy Inclusion, and The Marion Halligan Award. We gratefully acknowledge the generous support of the Anderson Pender Foundation, which will enable monetary prizes across categories again this year.
The 2025 Awards recognise work published in 2024 across four categories. The categories are children’s books (including picture books, middle-grade and young adult fiction - generally this means an awarded work for younger readers and for an older reader age range), fiction, nonfiction and poetry. The Awards welcome both self-published and traditionally published works.
This year we received a record number of submissions in a highly competitive field.
Sincere thanks to all writers and publishers who entered.
We thank our judges for their consideration and dedication in judging such a competitive year of entries.
2025 MARION Book Award Judges
Children’s - Jacqueline de Rose-Ahern, Will Kostakis
Fiction - Adrian Caesar, Ayesha Inoon
Nonfiction - Katrina Marson, Shannyn Palmer
Poetry - Paul Hetherington, Maya Hodge
Poetry shortlist
Makarra by Barrina South, Recent Work Press
Equations of Breath by Lucy Alexander, Recent WorkPress
The Daily News by Jen Webb, Recent Work Press
Refugia by Elfie Shiosaki, Magabala Books
Children’s Literature shortlist - Younger Readers
Alphabetter by Maura Pierlot and Jorge Garcia Redondo (ill.), Affirm Kids
Big, Big Love by Lisa Fuller and Samantha Campbell (ill.), Magabala Books
Flora by Tania McCartney, NLA Publishing
Marvellous Miles by Sarah Watts and Aleksandra Szmidt (ill.), Little Steps Publishing
One Little Dung Beetle by Rhiân Williams, Heather Potter, and Mark Johnson (ill.), WildDog Books
Sensational Australian Animals by Stephanie Owen Reeder and Cher Hart (ill.), CSIROPublishing
Children’s Literature shortlist - Older Readers
I’m Not Really Here by Gary Lonesborough, Allen & Unwin
Spirit of the Warriors by James Knight
That Book About Life Before Dinosaurs by David Conley
Tigg and the Bandicoot Bushranger by Jackie French, HarperCollins Australia
The Unexpected Mess of it all by Gabrielle Tozer, HarperCollins Australia
Tracks in the Mist: the Adamson Adventures 4 by Sandra Bennett
Fiction shortlist
Compassion by Julie Janson, Magabala Books
Pictures of You by Emma Grey, Penguin Books Australia
The Sea Captain’s Wife by Jackie French, HarperCollins Australia
The Thinning by Inga Simpson, Hachette Australia
Nonfiction shortlist
Australian Carillonists by Melissa Bray
Lebanon Days by Theodore Ell, Allen & Unwin
Max Dupain: A Portrait by Helen Ennis, HarperCollins Australia
Slutdom by Hilary Caldwell, UQP
An Unexpected Life by Vesna Cvjetićanin
Warra Warra Wai by Darren Rix and Craig Cormick, Scribner Australia
Warrior Soldier Brigand by Ben Wadham and James Connor, MUP
Award recipients will be revealed at the ACT Literary Awards Night on Thursday 3 July at the Shine Dome, ACT.
Tickets to attend the ACT Literary Awards will be available next week. Please be aware there are a limited number of tickets available due to venue constraints.
