Prime Minister's Literary Awards 2026 winners named in Canberra

Kate Wild, Pip Harry, Zana Fraillon and Rohan Howitt are among the six category winners, each receiving $80,000 tax-free. A Piece of Red Cloth won fiction.

Six books have won the 2026 Prime Minister's Literary Awards, announced at a ceremony at the National Library of Australia in Canberra on 10 September. Each category winner receives $80,000 tax-free.

The fiction award went to A Piece of Red Cloth (Allen & Unwin), written by Leonie Norrington with Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, Djawa Burarrwanga and Djawundil Maymuru. Kate Wild's The Red House, also from Allen & Unwin, won non-fiction.

Rohan Howitt won the Australian history award for The Southern Frontier (Melbourne University Publishing), and Ender Başkan won poetry with Two Hundred Million Musketeers (Giramondo Publishing). Zana Fraillon's Song of a Thousand Seas (University of Queensland Press) won children's literature, and Pip Harry's Drift (Hachette Australia) won young adult literature.

The awards are administered by Writing Australia, part of Creative Australia, and carry a total tax-free prize pool of $600,000. Up to four shortlisted entries in each category receive $5,000 tax-free.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese congratulated the winners, saying their books showed the depth and diversity of Australian literature. Arts minister Tony Burke said "Australian writers have a remarkable breadth of talent."