The Inky Award longlists 2016

16 Mar 2016

The Centre for Youth Literature has just announced the two longlists for the Inky Awards.

The Inky Awards recognise high-quality young adult literature. There are two awards: the Gold Inky Award for an Australian book, and the Silver Inky Award for an international book. The shortlist is selected by young adults, and the winners are voted for online by the teen readers of InsideaDog.com.au.

Teens who love reading, love talking about books, and love debating about what makes a great book can apply now to be an Inky Awards Judge.

Find out more information about how to apply here.

The Gold Longlist (Australian books)

This year’s Gold Inky Award longlist highlights perfectly what a diverse and talented landscape the Australian young adult scene is. From slice-of-life contemporary drama to funny romance, interstellar space battles and historical verse novels, these books will make any teen reader happy.

It’s great to see that diverse voices are alive and well in the genre, with representations of LGBTQ characters, Indigenous issues, gender diversity and religious minorities all featuring prominently in this range of titles. Veteran authors and up-and-comers are both on this list – this really is a feast of Aussie YA lit to sink your teeth into!

Clancy of the Undertow by Christopher Currie
The Flywheel by Erin Gough
Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Sister Heart by Sally Morgan
Carousel by Brendan Ritchie
Inbetween Days by Vikki Wakefield
Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti
Green Valentine by Lili Wilkinson
The Guy, The Girl, the Artist and his Ex by Gabrielle Williams
Cloudwish by Fiona Wood

The Silver Longlist (International books)

These are the titles from the rest of the world that wowed the selection panel, and it’s easy to see why: each of these books are outstanding in the YA genre and have garnered thousands of fans in a notoriously hard-to-crack field of readers.

Once again there’s a wide range of genres to please even the toughest teen critics, while many on here play with the concept of genre and even defy categorisation entirely. As with the Australian list, it’s wonderful to see issues represented here that are important to teen readers: body image, mental health, depression, trauma and discrimination being some. But there’s also humour, love, adventure and hope here. If ever you needed a roadmap to the best young adult has to offer worldwide, here it is.