First presented in 2014, The Readings Prize supports new and outstanding Australian voices across three separate categories of fiction: the Children’s Prize, the Young Adult and Gab Williams Prizes (named for our much-missed late colleague), and the New Australian Fiction Prize.
The Readings Prize is unique in the Australian literary landscape, being the only prize currently run by an independent Melbourne bookshop and supporting emerging local voices. Each year, the prizes are awarded to reflect our judgement of the works that have attained the highest literary merit in their category (and they’re always great reads too!) and offer richness and variety to Australian readers.
The Readings Prize 2026
In 2026, we will be making some changes to how the prize operates, but we’ll still be championing emerging Australian authors, celebrating books across age groups, and awarding winners with $5,000 prize money, each.
Our aim
To get more staff reading, discussing and hand-selling the longlist and shortlist for the Readings Prize; we want to make it more fun, more interactive and more inclusive for Readings’ 200+ staff over our 10 locations. There will be a lower barrier to entry (fewer books to read) for staff interested in judging the prize, and staff can now be a judge every year and judge across multiple categories, rather than just once every few years. This means more staff reading, discussing and recommending books from new Australian authors!
What will change
From 2026, we will only have one YA prize, called the Gab Williams Prize. Staff will choose the shortlist, but the decision of the winner will go to our Teen Advisory Board, as befits their important role as tastemakers advising Readings of what teen readers want.
The timing for the prizes will change in 2026. We’re going to kick off with the New Australian Fiction Prize, announcing a shortlist in September and the winner in October 2026.
The winner will be featured in the lineup for A Day in Carlton and our November Readings Monthly.
While we will also start longlisting and reading young adult and children’s books this year, our shortlists and winners will be announced separately in a ceremony in early 2027, to give them more attention, distinct from the fiction prize.
Learn more about each prize:
The Readings New Australian Fiction Prize
The Readings Gab Williams Prize
The Readings Children's Prize
