Vance Palmer Prize For Fiction

The Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction, formerly known as the Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction, is a prize category in the annual Victorian Premier's Literary Award. As of 2011 it has an remuneration of 25,000. The winner of this category prize vies with 4 other category winners for overall Victorian Prize for Literature valued at an additional 100,000.

The prize was formerly known as the Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction from inception until 2010, when the awards were re-established under the stewardship of the Wheeler Centre and restarted with new prize amounts and a new name. The Palmer Prize was valued at 30,000 in 2010. The award was named after Vance Palmer, a leading literary critic. Palmer wrote reviews and presented a program called ''Current Books Worth Reading'' on ABC Radio. He also wrote books about Australian cultural life, including ''National Portraits'' (1940) ''A.G. Stephens: His Life and Work'', (1941) ''Frank Wilmot'' (1942), ''Old Australian bush ballads'' (co-authored with Margaret Sutherland) (1951) and ''The Legend of the Nineties'' (1954). He was appointed in Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Commonwealth Literary Fund in 1947. The Palmer Prize was managed by the State Library of Victoria from 1997 to 2010.

Winners and shortlists

Blue ribbon () = winner.

*2023
**Jessica Au, ''Cold Enough for Snow''
**Brendan Colley, ''The Signal Line''
**Sophie Cunningham, ''This Devastating Fever''
**Yumna Kassab, ''The Lovers''
**Paul Dalla Rosa, ''An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life''
*2022
**Larissa Behrendt, ''After Story''
**Jennifer Down, ''Bodies of Light''
**Briohny Doyle, ''Echolalia''
** John Hughes, ''The Dogs''
**Melissa Manning, ''Smokehouse''
**S. J. Norman, ''Permafrost''
*2021
** Richard Flanagan, ''The Living Sea of Waking Dreams''
** Gail Jones, ''Our Shadows''
**Laura Jean McKay, ''The Animals in That Country''
**Vivian Pham, ''The Coconut Children''
*2020
** Yumna Kassab, ''The House of Youssef''
**Anna Krien, ''Act of Grace''
** Wayne Macauley, ''Simpson Returns''
**Christos Tsiolkas, ''Damascus''
**Tara June Winch, ''The Yield''
*2019
** Robbie Arnott, ''Flames''
** Jay Carmichael, ''Ironbark''
** Morenno Giovannoni, ''The Fireflies of Autumn: And Other Tales of San Ginese''
** Gail Jones, ''The Death of Noah Glass''
** Melissa Lucashenko, ''Too Much Lip''
**Elise Valmorbida, ''The Madonna of the Mountains''
*2018
** Steven Carroll, ''A New England Affair''
** Melanie Cheng, ''Australia Day''
** Michelle de Kretser, '' The Life to Come''
** Sofie Laguna, ''The Choke''
** Michael Sala, ''The Restorer''
** Kim Scott, ''Taboo''
*2017
** Georgia Blain, ''Between a Wolf and a Dog''
** Micheline Lee, ''The Healing Party''
** Sean Rabin, ''Wood Green''
** Philip Salom, ''Waiting''
** Jock Serong, ''The Rules of Backyard Cricket''
** Laura Elizabeth Woollett, ''The Love of a Bad Man''
*2016
** Miles Allinson, ''Fever of Animals''
** Stephanie Bishop, ''The Other Side of the World''
** James Bradley, ''Clade''
** Steven Carroll, ''Forever Young''
** Mirieille Juchau, ''The World Without Us''
** Charlotte Wood, '' The Natural Way of Things''
*2015
** Ceridwen Dovey, '' Only the Animals''
** Sonya Hartnett, '' Golden Boys''
** Mark Henshaw, ''The Snow Kimono''
** Wayne Macauley, ''Demons''
** John A. Scott, ''N''
** Rohan Wilson, ''To Name Those Lost''
*2014
** Hannah Kent, ''Burial Rites''
** Richard Flanagan, '' The Narrow Road to the Deep North''
** Alex Miller, '' Coal Creek''
** Alexis Wright, ''The Swan Book''
** Tim Winton, '' Eyrie''
** Michelle de Kretser, ''Questions of Travel''
*2013 Presented in January 2014 (see 2014 entry) for books published in 2013.
*2012
** Gillian Mears, ''Foal's Bread''
**Gerald Murnane, ''A History of Books''
** Wayne Macauley, ''The Cook''
**Carrie Tiffany, ''Mateship with Birds''
**Anna Funder, '' All That I Am''
**Frank Moorhouse, ''Cold Light''
*2011
** Gail Jones, '' Five Bells''
**Roger McDonald, '' When Colts Ran''
**Rohan Wilson, ''The Roving Party''
**Dominic Smith, ''Bright and Distant Shores''
** Craig Sherborne, ''The Amateur Science of Love''
** Kim Scott, '' That Deadman Dance''

Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction (1985-2010)

Winners

*2010 ''Truth'' by Peter Temple
*2009 '' The Slap'' by Christos Tsiolkas
*2008 '' The Spare Room'' by Helen GarnerVance Palmer Prize for Fiction - 2008 Winner
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*2007 ''Carpentaria'' by Alexis Wright (Giramondo)
*2006 '' Theft: A Love Story'' by Peter Carey (Knopf/Random House) Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction - 2006 Winner
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*2005 ''Surrender'' by Sonya Hartnett (Viking/Penguin) Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction - 2005 Winner
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*2004 '' Slow Water'' by Annamarie Jagose (Vintage/Random House) Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction - 2004 Winner
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*2003 ''Shanghai Dancing'' by Brian Castro (Giramondo) Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction - 2003 Winner
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*2002 '' Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish'' by Richard Flanagan (Picador/Pan Macmillan Australia)
*2001 ''True History of the Kelly Gang'' by Peter Carey (Knopf)
*2000 '' Out of Ireland'' by Christopher Koch (Doubleday/Random House Australia
*1999 ''Mr Darwin's Shooter'' by Roger McDonald (Random House Australia)
*1998 '' The Sound of One Hand Clapping'' by Richard Flanagan (Pan Macmillan)
*1997 ''The Drowner'' by Robert Drewe (Pan Macmillan)
*1996 '' Camille's Bread'' by Amanda Lohrey (Harper Collins)
*1995 ''Dark Places'' by Kate Grenville (Pan Macmillan)
*1994 ''What I Have Written'' by John A. Scott (McPhee Gribble)
*1993 '' After China'' by Brian Castro (Allen & Unwin)
*1992 '' Double-Wolf'' by Brian Castro (Allen & Unwin)
*1991 ''Still Murder'' by Finola Moorhead (Penguin Books)
*1990 '' Oceana Fine'' by Tom Flood (Allen & Unwin)
* 1989 '' Captivity Captive'' by Rodney Hall (McPhee Gribble)
*1988 ''Holden's Performance'' by Murray Bail (Penguin Books)
*1987 ''Second Sight'' by Janine Burke (Greenhouse)
*1986 ''Illywhacker'' by Peter Carey (University of Queensland Press)
*1985 ''Antipodes'' by David Malouf (Chatto & Windus)

Shortlists

;2010

* ''Parrot and Olivier in America'' by Peter Carey
* ''The Bath Fugues'' by Brian Castro
* '' Summertime'' by J.M. Coetzee
* ''Jasper Jones'' by Craig Silvey
* ''Truth by Peter Temple

;2009

* ''The Pages'' by Murray Bail
* '' Dog Boy'' by Eva Hornung
* '' The Boat'' by Nam Le
* ''Breath'' by Tim Winton
* '' The Slap'' by Christos Tsiolkas

;2008

* '' The Spare Room'' by Helen Garner
* '' Diary of a Bad Year'' by J.M. Coetzee
* '' The Lost Dog'' by Michelle de Kretser

;2007"2007 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards Shortlists", ''Matilda''
/ref>

* ''The Time We Have Taken'' by Steven Carroll
* '' Feather Man'' by Rhyll McMaster
* ''Carpentaria'' by Alexis Wright

References

{{reflist

Victorian Premier's Literary Awards
Australian fiction awards