The Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards shortlist for 2018 has just been announced.

The winners of the five award categories – fiction, non-fiction, drama, poetry and writing for young adults – each receive a prize of $25,000, and will be considered for the $100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature.

PRIZE FOR FICTION

• A New England Affair by Steven Carroll
• Australia Day by Melanie Cheng
• The Life to Come by Michelle de Kretser
• The Choke by Sofie Laguna
• The Restorer by Michael Sala
• Taboo by Kim Scott.

Highly commended:

No More Boats by Felicity Castagna, Terra Nullius by Claire Coleman, Atlantic Black by A.S. Patrić, Plane Tree Drive by Lynette Washington

PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION

• The Museum of Words: A Memoir of Language, Writing and Mortality by Georgia Blain
• Anaesthesia: The Gift of Oblivion and the Mystery of Consciousness by Kate Cole-Adams
• The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman’s Extraordinary Life in Death, Decay & Disaster by Sarah Krasnostein
• For a Girl: A True Story of Secrets, Motherhood and Hope by Mary-Rose MacColl
• No Way But This: In Search of Paul Robeson by Jeff Sparrow
• Tracker by Alexis Wright.

Highly commended:

They Cannot Take the Sky: Stories from Detention edited by Michael Green, Angelica Neville, André Dao, Dana Affleck & Sienna Merope

PRIZE FOR DRAMA

• Rice by Michele Lee
• Black is the New White by Nakkiah Lui
• The Rasputin Affair by Kate Mulvany

PRIZE FOR POETRY

• Argosy by Bella Li
• The Metronome by Jennifer Maiden
• redactor by Eddie Paterson

Highly commended:

I Love Poetry by Michael Farrell, Reading for a Quiet Morning by Petra White

PRIZE FOR WRITING FOR YOUNG ADULTS

• Living on Hope Street by Demet Divaroren
• Ida by Alison Evans
• Because of You by Pip Harry

The Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards include two further awards: the Unpublished Manuscript Award and the biennial Award for Indigenous Writing. The 2017 Unpublished Manuscript Award was won by Christian White for Decay Theory; it joins consideration with the other five category winners for the Victorian Prize for Literature.

The public are also encouraged to participate in the awards by voting their favourite work on the shortlist. The winner of the People’s Choice Award will be named alongside the general category winners, and will receive $2,000.

Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on 1 February 2018. Please visit the Wheeler Centre website for more information.