The 2026 shortlists for The Age Book of the Year awards have been announced! The Age Book of the Year Awards celebrate outstanding Australian works of fiction and nonfiction.
Winners will be announced during the Melbourne Writers Festival opening night on 7 May, with each category winner to receive $10,000. Judges for this year’s awards are author and critic Bram Presser and essayist and critic Beejay Silcox (fiction), as well as the Age and Sydney Morning Herald’s Canberra bureau chief Michelle Griffin and reviewer and Caritas Australia mission director Michael McGirr (nonfiction).
The 2026 Fiction Book of the Year shortlist
Fierceland by Omar Musa
The Immigrants by Moreno Giovannoni
Out of the Woods by Gretchen Shirm
A Piece of Red Cloth by Leonie Norrington, Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, Djawa Burarrwanga & Djawundil Maymuru
Salvage by Jennifer Mills
You Must Remember This by Sean Wilson
The 2026 Nonfiction Book of the Year shortlist
Blue Poles by Tom McIlroy
Gutsy Girls by Josie McSkimming
Mr and Mrs Gould by Grantlee Kieza
The Red House by Kate Wild
The Shortest History of Australia by Mark McKenna
A Woman’s Eye, Her Art by Drusilla Modjeska
Read the judges' comments on the 2026 shortlists here. You can also revisit the 2025 winners: Rodney Hall won the fiction award for Vortex and Lech Blaine won the nonfiction prize for Australian Gospel: A Family Saga.
