Prizes · Australia

Joanna Jenkins's The Bluff wins 2026 Davitt Award for best adult fiction

Sisters in Crime Australia presented the 2026 Davitt Awards in Melbourne on 12 September, with Kate Wild, Amy Doak, Sarah Armstrong and Angie Faye Martin also among the winners.

By The Book Source12 September 20261 minute read

Joanna Jenkins's The Bluff (Allen & Unwin) has won best adult fiction at the 2026 Davitt Awards, presented by Sisters in Crime Australia on 12 September at the Stamford Plaza Hotel in Melbourne.

Kate Wild's The Red House, also published by Allen & Unwin, won best non-fiction. Amy Doak took best young adult novel for What Have They Done to Liza McLean? (Penguin Random House Australia), and Sarah Armstrong won best children's novel for Run (Hardie Grant Children's). Amelia Mellor's Oceanforged: The Wicked Ship (Simon & Schuster Australia) was highly commended in the children's category.

Angie Faye Martin won best debut for Melaleuca (HQ Fiction), a book she said she had worked on for almost ten years. She was the only winner not at the ceremony. Sally Hepworth's Mad Mabel (Macmillan Australia) received the Kerry Greenwood Readers' Choice Award.

This year's 16 shortlisted titles were drawn from 126 entries. They were judged by a seven-member panel from Victoria, the ACT, NSW and Queensland, which works independently of Sisters in Crime and was chaired by Ruth Wykes. Louise Milligan hosted the ceremony and Dervla McTiernan presented the awards.

Original source: Sisters in Crime Australia ↗

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