Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has announced joint winners for the 2024 Barbara Jefferis Award: Sara M Saleh for Songs for the Dead and the Living and Lucy Treloar for Days of Innocence and Wonder.

Administered by the ASA, the award celebrates women in literature and is awarded biennially for ‘the best novel written by an Australian author that depicts women and girls in a positive way or otherwise empowers the status of women and girls in society’.  The two winners will share the $50,000 prize, which has happened only once before in the award’s history.

Hannah Kent, Chair of the judging panel, said: ‘Both novels are exemplary, both fulfilled the criteria of the award to equal measure, and both are, in our minds, deeply worthy of winning. Whilst vastly different in scope and subject, both depict women and girls in such a way as to empower their status in our society. Each centres a female protagonist and celebrates their extraordinary resilience and strength – although under very different circumstances. They both also argue for the reclamation of identity and autonomy in the face of loss. Each of the winning titles are vividly and beautifully written, deeply moving, and demonstrate their authors’ creative reach and mastery. The decision to divide the Award between them was agreed upon unanimously amongst the judges as the only just and feasible choice when faced with such literary riches.’

Songs for the Dead and the Living by Sara M Saleh

Songs for the Dead and the Living is a coming-of-age tale played out across generations and continents, from Palestine to Australia. Through stunning prose, acclaimed writer and human-rights activist Sara M Saleh offers a breathtaking portrait of the fragilities and flaws of family in the wake of war, and the love it takes to overcome great loss.

Of her win, Saleh said: ‘It is a privilege to have published this novel in a world that so often seeks to silence us, correct us, erase us; a joy to have publishers in Affirm Press who tended to it so uncompromisingly, and to have readers who resonate deeply with it; and a rare gift to be recognised by such esteemed authors and mentors – custodians and disrupters of our literary traditions, and to have the Australian Society of Authors steward such critical recognition . . . My gratitude is boundless.’

Days of Innocence and Wonder by Lucy Treloar

For all her life, Till, now twenty-three, has lived in the shadow of the abduction of a childhood friend, and her tormented half-wondering about whether she might have been able to stop it.

Both a reckoning with fear and a recognition of the power of belonging, Days of Innocence and Wonder is a richly textured, deeply felt new novel from one of Australia's finest writers.

Of her win, Treloar said: ‘In a world in which women’s rights are under increasing threat, a prize that centres women and girls and their many drives, ambitions, and life experiences is cause for celebration. So I am grateful to be among these extraordinary writers and these stunning books. I am grateful.'

The winners were selected from a shortlist announced in September. More information about the award can be found here.