The Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards shortlists for 2020 have now been announced.

Here are the shortlistees for this year…

PRIZE FOR FICTION

• The House of Youssef by Yumna Kassab
• Act of Grace by Anna Krien
  
• Simpson Returns by Wayne Macauley
• Damascus by Christos Tsiolkas
• The Yield by Tara June Winch

PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION

• Songspirals: Sharing Women’s Wisdom of Country through Songlines by Gay'wu Group of Women
• The Girls by Chloe Higgins
• See What You Made Me Do by Jess Hill
  
• Future Histories by Lizzie O'Shea
  
• Tell Me Why: The Story of My Life and My Music by Archie Roach
• Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia by Christina Thompson

Highly commended:

• Castaway by Robert Macklin

• The Enchantment of the Long-haired Rat by Tim Bonyhady

• The Thinking Woman by Julienne van Loon

PRIZE FOR DRAMA

• Them by Samah Sabawi
• Counting and Cracking by S. Shakthidharan, associate Writer Eamon Flack
• City of Gold by Meyne Wyatt

Highly commended:

• Anthem by Andrew Bovell, Patricia Cornelius, Melissa Reeves, Christos Tsiolkas and Irine Vela

• White Pearl by Anchuli Felicia King

PRIZE FOR POETRY

• Yuiquimbiang by Louise Crisp
  
• Nganajungu Yagu by Charmaine Papertalk Green
• Birth Plan by LK Holt

Highly commended

• Archival-Poetics by Natalie Harkin

• The Future Keepers by Nandi Chinna

PRIZE FOR WRITING FOR YOUNG ADULTS

• Invisible Boys by Holden Sheppard
• This is How We Change the Ending by Vikki Wakefield
• How it Feels to Float by Helena Fox

Highly commended:

• Highway Bodies by Alison Evans

• Where the Ground is Hard by Malla Nunn

PRIZE FOR AN UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT

• Hovering by Rhett Davis
• In Real Life by Allee Richards
• A Million Things by Emily Spurr

Highly commended:

• I’ll hold you by Jenni Mazaraki

The winners of the main suite of awards – fiction, non-fiction, drama, poetry, writing for young adults and the biennial award for Indigenous writing (to be awarded next in 2021) – each receive $25,000. The winner of the Prize for an Unpublished Manuscript receives $15,000. The category winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on Thursday 30 January, and will go on to contest the overall Victorian Prize for Literature, worth an additional $100,000.

Please visit the Wheeler Centre website for more information.