The Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards shortlists for 2022 have been revealed. Congratulations to all the shortlistees!

PRIZE FOR FICTION

• After Story by Larissa Behrendt
• Bodies of Light by Jennifer Down
• Echolalia by Briohny Doyle
• The Dogs by John Hughes
• Smokehouse by Melissa Manning
• Permafrost by S.J Norman

PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION

• Coming of Age in the War on Terror by Randa Abdel-Fattah
• Summertime: Reflections on a Vanishing Future by Danielle Celermajer
• Black and Blue: A Memoir of Racism and Resilience by Veronica Gorrie
• The Mother Wound by Amani Haydar
• Buried Not Dead by Fiona McGregor
• Another Day in the Colony by Chelsea Watego

PRIZE FOR INDIGENOUS WRITING

• Dropbear by Evelyn Araluen
• Black and Blue: A Memoir of Racism and Resilience by Veronica Gorrie
• The Boy from the Mish by Gary Lonesborough
• Another Day in the Colony by Chelsea Watego

PRIZE FOR POETRY

• How Decent Folk Behave by Maxine Beneba Clarke
• Human Looking by Andy Jackson
• Trigger Warning by Maria Takolander

PRIZE FOR WRITING FOR YOUNG ADULTS

• Girls in Boys’ Cars by Felicity Castagna
• The Gaps by Leanne Hall
• Tiger Daughter by Rebecca Lim

PRIZE FOR AN UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT

• Fauna of Mirrors by Keshe Chow
• Lead Us Not by Abbey Lay
• The Albatross by Nina Wan

PRIZE FOR DRAMA

• Return to the Dirt by Steve Perie
• Archimedes War by Melissa Reeves
• Milk by Dylan Van Den Berg

The winners of the main suite of awards – fiction, non-fiction, drama, poetry, writing for young adults and the biennial award for Indigenous writing – each receive $25,000. The winner of the Prize for an Unpublished Manuscript receives $15,000. The category winners will be announced at an online awards ceremony on Thursday 3 February, 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.