First presented in 2014, the Readings Prize is an Australian

literary award A literary award or literary prize is an award presented in recognition of a particularly lauded literary piece or body of work. It is normally presented to an author. Organizations Most literary awards come with a corresponding award ceremony. Ma ...

across three separate categories of fiction: Children's, Young Adult and New Australian Fiction. It is run by Readings bookstores, an independent Melbourne bookseller with eight stores, established in 1969. In 2016, Readings won International Bookstore of the Year at the London Book Fair, a category open to all stores outside of the UK. Every year, a shortlist of six titles is selected by a revolving panel of Readings staff. Once the shortlist has been decided, a guest judge then joins the panel to select a winner. The Prize is awarded to the work of highest literary merit. Readings owner Mark Rubbo said about the awards: 'It can be difficult for debut and second-time authors to attract attention, especially when the heavy-hitters dominate the media. We established the prizes to attract readers who might not necessarily pick up these books otherwise.' Created ‘to financially reward and promote debut and second-time authors of children’s, young adult, and new Australian fiction’, the Readings Prizes were created ‘to support new and outstanding Australian voices’. Winners of the New Australian Fiction Prize include:

Jessica Au Jessica Au is an Australian editor and bookseller, and author of the novels ''Cargo'' and '' Cold Enough for Snow''. Au won the inaugural Novel prize in 2022. She is based in Melbourne. Au won the 2023 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction a ...

, Alice Robinson, Andrew Pippos,

Jennifer Down Jennifer Down (born 1990) is an Australian novelist and short story writer. She won the 2022 Miles Franklin Award for her novel ''Bodies of Light''. Biography Down was in born 1990. She studied arts at Melbourne University before studying ...

, Elizabeth Tan, Stephanie Bishop, Sam Carmody, Zoe Morrison, and

Ceridwen Dovey Ceridwen Dovey (born 1980) is a South African and Australian social anthropologist and author. In 2009 she was named a 5 under 35 nominee by the National Book Foundation and in 2020 won The Bragg UNSW Press Prize for Science Writing. Early year ...

. In 2023, Readings awarded an additional young adult book prize: the Gab Williams Prize will ‘honour previous prize manager and young adult author Gab Williams, who passed away suddenly in January 2023’, said Readings. The winner of the new prize is chosen by the Readings Teen Advisory Board, who are readers aged between 14 and 19 years, from the Readings YA Book Prize shortlist. The inaugural winner of the Gab Williams Prize was ''Completely Normal (and Other Lies)'' by Biffy James (HGCP) in 2023.

Past shortlists and winners

References

{{reflist Australian literary awards Literary awards by language