Prizes · Australia

Mabel Gibson's CryBaby takes WA Premier's Book of the Year

The Night Parrot Press micro memoir also won Emerging Writer, and David Whish-Wilson's O'Keefe took fiction, from a $120,000 prize pool.

By The Book Source11 September 20261 minute read

Yamatji writer Mabel Gibson's debut micro memoir CryBaby, published by Night Parrot Press, has been named Book of the Year at the 2026 Western Australian Premier's Book Awards, announced on 11 September. The book also won the Emerging Writer award.

Gibson is 27. The judges described her book as "heartbreaking and sumptuous". The awards carry a total prize pool of $120,000.

David Whish-Wilson's O'Keefe (Fremantle Press) won Fiction Book of the Year. Non-Fiction Book of the Year went to Tjukurrpa Kurranyu. Tjukurrpa in the Front: The Yarnangu Foundation for Joint Management in the Pila Nature Reserve by Jan Turner and Dr Lizzie Marrkilyi Giles Ellis (Warnpurru Aboriginal Corporation).

Gavin Aung Than's Creature Clinic (Figment, an imprint of Hardie Grant) won Children's Book of the Year, and Kate Emery's A Murder is Going Down (Allen & Unwin) won Young Adult Book of the Year. The Dr Charmaine Papertalk Green Smith Poetry Prize went to Past & Parallel Lives by Kaya Ortiz (UWA Publishing). The Daisy Utemorrah Award for an unpublished manuscript, sponsored by Magabala Books, went to Amanda Lott for Barefoot Running.

The poetry category has been renamed in honour of the late poet, writer and community leader Dr Charmaine Papertalk Green Smith, who was also inducted into the Western Australian Writers Hall of Fame. Premier Roger Cook and Creative Industries Minister Simone McGurk congratulated the winners, with McGurk noting Papertalk Green Smith's lasting contribution to writing in the state.

Original source: Government of Western Australia media statement ↗

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