Australia’s richest state-based literary prize, the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards (VPLAs), has announced the 2026 winners at a ceremony in Melbourne on Wednesday 25 February.
Drawn from the eight category winners, the Victorian Prize for Literature – the program’s most prestigious award, worth $100,000 – was presented to Evelyn Araluen for The Rot, with Araluen also taking home the Prize for Indigenous Writing.
Also shortlisted for the Prize for Poetry, The Rot drew praise from judges for its ‘vulnerable, taut and uncompromising’ power of Araluen’s second collection. A former recipient of The Wheeler Centre’s Next Chapter Fellowship, the Goorie and Koori poet, editor and educator was among several Victorian writers celebrated this year, with fellow locals Emilie Collyer, Zeno Sworder and Micaela Sahhar also named winners in their respective categories.
This year’s Writing for Young Adults category was renamed the John Marsden Prize, in a special tribute to the acclaimed writer, teacher and mentor. Margot McGovern’s gripping horror novel This Stays Between Us was awarded the John Marsden Prize for Writing for Young Adults. Ros Marsden was on hand to present the prize, with McGovern acknowledging Marsden’s enduring influence on generations of young readers and writers in her acceptance speech.
“Congratulations to all the winners of this year’s Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. These awards are a highlight of the national literary calendar, and The Wheeler Centre is proud to deliver them on behalf of the Victorian Government,” said The Wheeler Centre CEO Erin Vincent.
“The awards celebrate the extraordinary talent of Australian writers and the powerful role stories play in our lives. We’re thrilled to see two of this year’s winners are former fellows of The Wheeler Centre’s landmark Next Chapter writing program, which highlights just how important it is to support writers at every stage of their careers.”
Alongside Araluen’s win in the Indigenous Writing category and McGovern’s win for the John Marsden Prize for Writing for Young Adults, the cohort of 2026 VPLA winners served to showcase the breadth, ambition and diversity of Australia’s contemporary literary landscape.
Omar Musa’s ‘expansive and tenderly intimate glorious family saga’, Fierceland, took out the Fiction category and Micaela Sahhar, another Wheeler Centre Next Chapter Fellowship recipient, was recognised in Non-Fiction for her remarkable debut memoir, Find Me at the Jaffa Gate: An Encyclopaedia of a Palestinian Family.
Eunice Andrada was awarded the Prize for Poetry for her third collection, KONTRA; the hilarious and poignant Super by Emilie Collyer received the Prize for Drama; and Zeno Sworder whose ‘luminous elegy on memory, loss and regeneration’, Once I Was a Giant, was selected for the Prize for Children’s Literature.
Described by the judges as a ‘moving and authentically drawn portrait of grief, care and growing old,’ Charlotte Guest’s The Kookaburra was awarded the Prize for an Unpublished Manuscript.
A writer and bookseller from Geelong, Guest follows in the footsteps of previous VPLA Prize for an Unpublished Manuscript winners Graeme Simsion (The Rosie Project), Jane Harper (The Dry) and Maxine Beneba Clarke (Foreign Soil), amongst many other now bestselling authors.
The Wheeler Centre’s 2026 People’s Choice Award winner was Randa Abdel-Fattah’s Discipline. Nominated as Highly Commended in the Fiction category, Discipline was nominated by the voting public and awarded a cash prize of $2,000, funded by The Wheeler Centre.
The winners of the Fiction, Non-Fiction, Drama, Poetry, Indigenous Writing, Children’s Literature and the John Marsden Prize for Writing for Young Adults categories each receive $25,000. The Award for an Unpublished Manuscript carries a $15,000 prize and includes a two-week residency at McCraith House in Dromana, delivered in partnership between The Wheeler Centre and RMIT Culture.
Recipients of the 2026 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards:
Victorian Prize for Literature:
The Rot – Evelyn Araluen (University of Queensland Press)
Fiction:
Fierceland – Omar Musa (Penguin Random House Australia)
Non-Fiction:
Find Me at the Jaffa Gate: An encyclopaedia of a Palestinian family – Micaela Sahhar (NewSouth)
Indigenous Writing:
The Rot – Evelyn Araluen (University of Queensland Press)
Drama:
Super – Emilie Collyer (Currency Press & Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre)
Poetry:
KONTRA – Eunice Andrada (Giramondo Publishing)
John Marsden Prize for Writing for Young Adults:
This Stays Between Us – Margot McGovern (Penguin Random House Australia)
Children’s Literature:
Once I Was a Giant – Zeno Sworder (Thames and Hudson Australia)
Unpublished Manuscript:
The Kookaburra – Charlotte Guest
People’s Choice Award:
Discipline – Randa Abdel-Fattah (University of Queensland Press)
For more information about the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards (VPLA), visit: www.wheelercentre.com for details.
Image: Evelyn Araluen – photo by James Henry