More Australian Book Awards

November is AusReading Month.

A month long love-in for all things Aussie, true-blue and fair dinkum!

In the lead up to November I am posting oodles of info about local literary prizes, top 50 Australian reading lists and random Australiana facts.

You can join in the by linking to the master post above or on twitter & instagram using #ausreadingmonth #bronasbooks @brona68

Today's post is focusing on some of the lesser known book awards for Australian books & authors.

The Stella Prize "is a major literary award celebrating Australian women’s writing.

The prize is named after one of Australia’s iconic female authors, Stella Maria ‘Miles’ Franklin, and was awarded for the first time in 2013. Both non-fiction and fiction books by Australian women are eligible for entry."

The 2013 winner was Carrie Tiffany for Mateship With Birds.

The Indie Book awards are awarded by the Independent Booksellers of Australia. There are over 200 Independent bookshops within Australia (and I'm proud to say that I work in one of them.)


Each year there are 16 shortlisted books across 4 areas - Fiction, Non-Fiction, Debut Fiction & Children's. The books are judged and voted on by Independent booksellers and their reading public. The 4 winners then vie for the Book of the Year award.

Previous Book of the year winners were Breath by Tim Winton (2008 inaugural winner), Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey (2009), The Happiest Refugee by Ahn Do (2011) and All That I Am by Anna Funder (2012). Goodreads has a list of previous winners with their reviews here.

The 2013 book of the year award went to M. L. Stedman for The Light Between Oceans.

The Aurealis Awards started in 1995. They're awarded by the publishers of Aurealis magazine to
"recognise the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror writers.

The Aurealis Awards are intended to complement the Annual Australian National Science Fiction Convention’s Ditmar Awards and the Australian Children’s Book Council Awards."

The award has four separate categories - science fiction, fantasy, horror and young adult. A fifth category, children's fiction, was added in 2001.

The 2012 winners were Daniel O'Malley for The Rook, Margo Lanagan for Sea Hearts, Kirstyn McDermott for Perfections and joint winners for the YA section - Margo Lanagan for Sea Hearts and Kaz Delaney for Dead, Actually. The children's winners were John Flanagan for Brotherband: The Hunters & Graeme Base for Little Elephants.

Previous winners can be found here.

The Australian Book Industry Awards are run by the Australian Publishers Association (whose "role is to protect and promote the interests of Australian publishers").

The ABIA's recognise best debut novel, best general fiction, best general non-fiction, biography of the year best younger readers fiction, best older readers fiction & best illustrated book. Awards are also given to Publisher of the Year and Bookseller of the Year.

The 2013 winners were M.L Stedman for Light Between Oceans, Kate Morton for The Secret Keeper, Richard de Crespigny for QF32, Jim Stynes for My Journey, Nick Bland for The Very Itchy Bear, Andy Griffiths & Terry Denton for 26-Storey Treehouse and Best Illustrated was shared by The Lost Diggers by Ross Coulthart and Lake Eyre by Paul Lockyer.

Previous winners can be found here (by scrolling down to the bottom of the webpage).

The Ned Kelly Awards began in 1995.

I think the title of the award pretty tells you all you need to know!

The winners for 2013 were Geoffrey McGeachin for Blackwattle Creek (best crime fiction), Jane Lovitt for The Midnight Promise (best first crime fiction) and Robin de Crespigny for The People Smuggler (best true crime).

Tasmanian Literary Prizes have been around in one form or another since 2001.

"The prizes celebrate the richness of the Tasmanian literary sector and acknowledge the particular influence that Tasmania has on written work."

The 2013 winners were:

The Tasmania Book Prize – for best book with Tasmanian content in any genre

1835: The Founding of Melbourne and the Conquest of Australia by James Boyce

The Margaret Scott Prize – for best book by a Tasmanian writer

The Roving Party by Rohan Wilson 

The University of Tasmania Prize – For the best new unpublished literary work by an emerging Tasmanian writer

Kubla, Katherine Johnson

The shortlist for the Reading & Enjoying Australian Literature (REAL) Awards, acts as a shortlist for children’s choice book awards in the Australian Capital Territory (COOL Awards), New South Wales (KOALAs), the Northern Territory (KROC Awards) and Victoria (YABBAs).

Children in the Victoria, NSW, ACT, and NT vote for their favourite books in each category in October. The winners of the YABBA, KOALA, COOL, & KROC awards are then announced in November.

Young Australian's Best Book Awards (YABBA) is a part of the Victorian books awards. It's a children's choice award that has been around since 1986.

The 2012 winners were The Phoenix Files: Arrival by Chris Morphew (fiction years 7-9), The 13-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths & Terry Denton (older readers), Alice-Miranda At School by Jacqueline Harvey (younger readers) & Fearless in Love by Colin Thompson & Sarah Davis (picture book).

Previous winners can be found here.

NSW also has their own literary award as judged by younger readers called The Koala Awards. They have been awarded since 2006.

The 2012 winners were The Phoenix Files: Arrival by Chris Morphew (fiction years 7-9), The 13-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths & Terry Denton (older readers), Tashi and the Golem by Anna Fienberg & Kim Gamble (younger readers) & Fearless in Love by Colin Thompson & Sarah Davis (picture book).

The COOL Awards (Canberra's Own Outstanding List) have been awarded since 1991.

The 2012 winners were The Phoenix Files: Arrival by Chris Morphew (fiction years 7-9), The 13-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths & Terry Denton (older readers), Tashi and the Golem by Anna Fienberg & Kim Gamble (younger readers) & The Terrible Plop by Ursula Dubosarsky & Andrew Joyner (picture book).

The KROC Awards have been around since 1991 although I was unable to find any reference to previous winners.

The 2012 winners were Midnight Zoo by Sonya Hartnett (fiction years 7 -9), The 13-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths & Terry Denton (older readers), Billie B Brown: The Birthday Mixup by Sally Rippin (younger readers) & Very Cranky Bear by Nick Bland (picture book).