The Age Book of the Year Awards

The Age Book of the Year Awards were annual literary awards presented by Melbourne's The Age newspaper. The awards were first presented in 1974. After 1998, they were presented as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival. Initially, two awards were given, one for fiction (or imaginative writing), the other for non-fiction work, but in 1993, a poetry award in honour of Dinny O'Hearn was added.[1] The criteria were that the works be "of outstanding literary merit and express Australian identity or character,"[1] and be published in the year before the award was made. One of the award-winners was chosen as The Age Book of the Year. The awards were discontinued in 2013.

In 2021 The Age Book of the Year was revived as a fiction prize, with the winner announced at the Melbourne Writers Festival. A non-fiction prize was added the following year.[2]

The Age Book of the Year (from 2021)

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Fiction

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The Age Book of the Year Awards winners
Year Author Title Result Ref.
2021 Robbie Arnott The Rain Heron Won [3][4]
2022 Miles Allinson In Moonland Won [5]
2023 Robbie Arnott Limberlost Won [6]
2024 Tony Birch* Women & Children Won [7]
Stephanie Bishop Anniversary Shortlisted [8][9]
Elise Hearst One Day We're All Going to Die
Nicholas Jose The Idealist
Charlotte Wood Stone Yard Devotional
Jessica Zhan Mei Yu But the Girl

Non-Fiction

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The Age Book of the Year Awards winners
Year Author Title Result Ref.
2022 Bernadette Brennan Leaping into Waterfalls Won [5]
2023 Kim Mahood Wandering with Intent Won [6]
2024 Ross McMullin Life So Full of Promise Won [7]


The Age Book of the Year (from 1974-2012)

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The Age Book of the Year Awards winners
Year Author Title Ref.
1974 David Foster The Pure Land [10]
1975 Thea Astley A Kindness Cup [11]
1976 A. D. Hope A Late Picking: Poems 1965-1974 [12]
Hugh Stretton Capitalism, Socialism and the Environment [12]
1977 Not awarded [13]
1978 Christopher Koch The Year of Living Dangerously [14]
1979 Roger McDonald 1915: A Novel of Gallipoli [15]
1980 David Ireland A Woman of the Future [16]
Murray Bail Homesickness [16]
1981 Eric Charles Rolls A Million Wild Acres [17]
1982 David Malouf Fly Away Peter [18]
1983 Elizabeth Jolley Mr Scobie's Riddle [19]
1984 Nicholas Hasluck The Bellarmine Jug [20]
1985 Peter Carey Illywhacker [21]
1986 Joan London Sister Ships and Other Stories [22]
1987 Jessica Anderson Stories from the Warm Zone [23]
1988 Frank Moorhouse Forty-Seventeen [24]
1989 Marsden Hordern Mariners are Warned: John Lort Stokes and HMA Beagle [25]
1990 Gwen Harwood Blessed City [26]
1991 David Marr Patrick White: A Life [27]
1992 Marion Halligan Lovers' Knots [28]
1993 Elizabeth Jolley The Georges' Wife [29]
1994 Peter Carey The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith [30]
1995 Chris Wallace-Crabbe Selected Poems 1956–1994 [31]
1996 Thea Astley The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow [32]
1997 Peter Carey Jack Maggs [33]
1998 Elliot Perlman Three Dollars [34]
1999 K.S. Inglis Sacred Places: War Memorials in the Australian Landscape [35]
2000 Amy Witting Isobel on the Way to the Corner Shop [36]
2001 Rosemary Dobson Untold Lives and Later Poems [37]
2002 Don Watson Recollections of a Bleeding Heart: Paul Keating PM [38]
2003 Sonya Hartnett Of a Boy [39]
2004 Luke Davies Totem [40]
2005 Gay Bilson Plenty: Digressions on Food [41]
2006 Jennifer Maiden Friendly Fire [42]
2007 Peter Cochrane Colonial Ambition: Foundations of Australian Democracy [43]
2008 Don Watson American Journeys [44]
2009 Steven Amsterdam Things We Didn't See Coming [45]
2010 Alex Miller Lovesong [46]
2011 Fiona McGregor Indelible Ink [47]
2012 James Boyce 1835: The Founding of Melbourne & the Conquest of Australia [48]

Fiction (or Imaginative Writing) Award

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Fiction (or Imaginative Writing) Award winners
Year Author Title Ref.
1974 David Foster The Pure Land [10]
1975 Thea Astley A Kindness Cup [11]
1976 A. D. Hope A Late Picking: Poems 1965-1974 [12]
1977 No award [49]
1978 Christopher Koch The Year of Living Dangerously [14]
1979 Roger McDonald 1915: A Novel of Gallipoli [15]
1980 David Ireland A Woman of the Future [16]
Murray Bail Homesickness [16]
1981 Blanche d'Alpuget Turtle Beach [17]
1982 David Malouf Fly Away Peter [18]
1983 Elizabeth Jolley Mr Scobie's Riddle [19]
1984 Nicholas Hasluck The Bellarmine Jug [50]
1985 Peter Carey Illywhacker [51]
1986 Joan London Sister Ships and Other Stories [22]
1987 Jessica Anderson Stories from the Warm Zone [23]
1988 Frank Moorhouse Forty-Seventeen [24]
1989 Elizabeth Jolley My Father's Moon [25]
1990 Glenda Adams Longleg [26]
1991 Brian Castro Double-Wolf [27]
1992 Marion Halligan Lovers' Knots [28]
1993 Elizabeth Jolley The Georges' Wife [29]
1994 Peter Carey The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith [30]
1995 Rod Jones Billy Sunday [31]
1996 Thea Astley The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow [32]
1997 Peter Carey Jack Maggs [33]
1998 Elliot Perlman Three Dollars [34]
1999 James Bradley The Deep Field [35]
2000 Amy Witting Isobel on the Way to the Corner Shop [36]
2001 Peter Carey True History of the Kelly Gang [37]
2002 Joan London Gilgamesh [38]
2003 Sonya Hartnett Of a Boy [39]
2004 Andrew McGahan The White Earth [40]
2005 Gail Jones Sixty Lights [41]
2006 Christos Tsiolkas Dead Europe [42]
2007 David Malouf Every Move You Make [43]
2008 Tim Winton Breath [44]
2009 Steven Amsterdam Things We Didn't See Coming [45]
2010 Alex Miller Lovesong [46]
2011 Fiona McGregor Indelible Ink [47]
2012 Gillian Mears Foal's Bread [48]

Non-fiction Award

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Non-fiction Award winners
Year Author Title Ref.
1974 Manning Clark A History of Australia (Vol. 3) [10]
1975 Not awarded [11]
1976 Hugh Stretton Capitalism, Socialism and the Environment [12]
1977 Not awarded [49]
1978 Patsy Adam-Smith The Anzacs [14]
1979 Not awarded [15]
1980 Not awarded [16]
1981 Eric Charles Rolls A Million Wild Acres [17]
1982 Geoffrey Serle John Monash: A Biography [18]
1983 Lloyd Robson History of Tasmania [19]
1984 John Rickard HB Higgins: The Rebel and Judge [20]
1985 Chester Eagle Mapping the Paddocks [21]
Hugh Lunn Vietnam: A Reporter's War [21]
1986 Garry Kinnane George Johnston: A Biography [22]
1987 Robert Hughes The Fatal Shore [23]
1988 Robin Gerster Big-Noting: The Heroic Theme in Australian War Writing [24]
1989 Marsden Hordern Mariners are Warned!: John Lort Stokes and HMS Beagle in Australia 1837-1843 [25]
1990 Gwen Harwood Blessed City [26]
1991 David Marr Patrick White: A Life [27]
1992 Ruth Park A Fence Around the Cuckoo [28]
1993 Janet McCalman Journeyings [29]
1994 Jim Davidson Lyrebird Rising [30]
1995 Tim Flannery The Future Eaters [31]
1996 Geoffrey Serle Robin Boyd: A Life [32]
1997 Roberta Sykes Snake Cradle [33]
1998 Stuart MacIntyre The Reds [34]
1999 K.S. Inglis Sacred Places: War Memorials in the Australian Landscape [35]
2000 Kim Mahood Craft for a Dry Lake [36]
2001 Nadia Wheatley The Life and Myth of Charmian Clift [37]
2002 Don Watson Recollections of a Bleeding Heart: Paul Keating Prime Minister [38]
2003 Ann Galbally Charles Condor: The Last Bohemian [39]
2004 Peter Robb A Death in Brazil [40]
2005 Gay Bilson Plenty: Digressions on Food [41]
2006 Mandy Sayer Velocity [42]
2007 Peter Cochrane Colonial Ambition: Foundations of Australian Democracy [43]
2008 Don Watson American Journeys [44]
2009 Guy Rundle Down to the Crossroads [45]
2010 Kate Howarth Ten Hail Marys [46]
2011 Jim Davidson A Three-Cornered Life [47]
2012 James Boyce 1835: The Founding of Melbourne & The Conquest of Australia [48]

Dinny O'Hearn Poetry Prize

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Dinny O'Hearn Poetry Prize winners
Year Author Title Ref.
1993 John Tranter At the Florida [29]
1994 Dorothy Porter The Monkey's Mask [30]
1995 Chris Wallace-Crabbe Selected Poems 1956–1994 [31]
1996 Eric Beach Weeping for Lost Babylon [32]
1997 Emma Lew The Wild Reply [33]
Peter Porter Dragons in their Pleasant Palaces [33]
1998 John Kinsella The Hunt and Other Poems [34]
1999 R. A. Simpson The Impossible, and Other Poems [35]
2000 Peter Minter Empty Texas [36]
2001 Rosemary Dobson Untold Lives and Later Poems [37]
2002 Robert Gray After Images [38]
2003 Laurie Duggan Mangroves [39]
2004 Luke Davies Totem [40]
2005 Dipti Saravanamuttu The Colosseum [41]
2006 Jennifer Maiden Friendly Fire [42]
2007 Robert Adamson The Goldfinches of Baghdad [43]
2008 J. S. Harry Not Finding Wittgenstein [44]
2009 Peter Porter Better Than God [45]
2010 Jennifer Maiden Pirate Rain [46]
2011 John Tranter Starlight: 150 Poems [47]
2012 Mal McKimmie The Brokenness Sonnets I-III And Other Poems [48]

First Book

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References

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