The shortlists for this year’s

The Nita B. Kibble Literary Awards have celebrated Australia’s women writers for 20 years. The awards commemorate the trail-blazing Nita B. Kibble (1879-1962), the first female librarian at the State Library of New South Wales who was employed in 1899 after her signature was mistaken for a man’s when she applied for a junior position.

The shortlisted authors for the Kibble Literary Award ($30,000) for the work of an established Australian woman writer are:

The shortlisted authors for the Dobbie Literary Award ($5,000) for a first-published work are:

Read more about the awards