The Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards shortlist for 2019 has now been announced.

The winners of the main suite of awards – fiction, non-fiction, drama, poetry, writing for young adults, and the biennial Prize for Indigenous Writing – each receive $25,000. The winner of the Prize for an Unpublished Manuscript receives $15,000.

PRIZE FOR FICTION

• Flames by Robbie Arnott
• Ironbark by Jay Carmichael
• The Fireflies of Autumn: And Other Tales of San Ginese by Moreno Giovannoni
• The Death of Noah Glass by Gail Jones
• Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko
• The Madonna of the Mountains by Elise Valmorbida

Highly commended:
Pink Mountain on Locust Island by Jamie Marina Lau

PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION

• No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison by Behrouz Boochani
• Staying: A Memoir by Jessie Cole
• The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire by Chloe Hooper
• Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee
• Miss Ex-Yugoslavia by Sofija Stefanovic
• Axiomatic by Maria Tumarkin

Highly commended:
Deep Time Dreaming: Uncovering Ancient Australia by Billy Griffiths, One Hundred Years of Dirt by Rick Morton, Always Another Country: A Memoir of Exile and Home by Sisonke Msimang, Small Wrongs: How we really say sorry in love, life and law by Kate Rossmanith

PRIZE FOR DRAMA

• The Almighty Sometimes by Kendall Feaver
• Going Down by Michele Lee
• Barbara and the Camp Dogs by Ursula Yovich & Alana Valentine

Highly commended:
Lethal Indifference by Anna Barnes, In the Club by Patricia Cornelius

PRIZE FOR POETRY

• Flood Damages by Eunice Andrada
• Tilt by Kate Lilley
• Milk Teeth by Rae White

Highly commended:
Body of Work by Elena Gomez, Subtraction by Fiona Hile, Blakwork by Alison Whittaker

PRIZE FOR WRITING FOR YOUNG ADULTS

• Amelia Westlake by Erin Gough
• Between Us by Clare Atkins
• Catching Teller Crow by Ambelin Kwaymullina & Ezekiel Kwaymullina

Highly commended:
After the Lights Go Out by Lili Wilkinson, Tin Heart by Shivaun Plozza

PRIZE FOR INDIGENOUS WRITING

• Common People by Tony Birch
• Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko
• Taboo by Kim Scott
• Blakwork by Alison Whittaker

PRIZE FOR AN UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT

• Wedding Cake Island by John Byron
• Kokomo by Victoria Hannan
• Frontier Sport by Wayne Marshall

Highly commended:
The Fogging by Luke Horton, This Wasn’t Meant To Be Me by Allee Richards

The winners of the seven award categories will be announced at an awards ceremony on 31 January 2018, 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.