The 2024 Age Book of the Year Shortlists have been announced! Judges for this year’s awards include Readings' own Mark Rubbo. The winners will be announced during the Melbourne Writers Festival opening gala on 8 May, with each category winner to receive $10,000.

The shortlisted books in each category are:

Fiction

• Women & Children by Tony Birch
• The Anniversary by Stephanie Bishop
• One Day We’re All Going to Die by Elise Hearst
• The Idealist by Nicholas Jose
• Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood
• But the Girl by Jessica Zhan Mei Yu

Nonfiction

• Bennelong & Phillip: A History Unravelled by Kate Fullagar
• Home Work: Essays on Love and Housekeeping by Helen Hayward
• Frank Moorhouse: Strange Paths by Matthew Lamb
• Life So Full of Promise: Further Biographies of Australia’s Lost Generation by Ross McMullin
• A Brilliant Life by Rachelle Unreich
• Personal Score: Sport, Culture, Identity by Ellen van Neerven