The nation's best writing. Australia's richest literary prize.

The Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards were inaugurated by the Victorian Government in 1985 to honour literary achievement by Australian writers. The awards are administered by the Wheeler Centre on behalf of the Premier of Victoria.

The winners of the main suite of awards – fiction, non-fiction, drama, poetry, writing for young adults and the biennial award for Indigenous writing – each receive $25,000. The winner of the Award for an Unpublished Manuscript receives $15,000.

The winners of these award categories go on to contest the overall Victorian Prize for Literature, worth an additional $100,000. This is the single most valuable literary award in the country.

The winner of the People’s Choice Award will be named alongside the general category winners, and will receive $2,000.



This year's shortlist was announced below on 2 December 2019.

The judges

Fiction: Jay Carmichael, Micheline Lee, Anna MacDonald, Elizabeth Flux (convenor)

Non-fiction: Ali Alizadeh, Joy Damousi, Quinn Eades, Jacinda Woodhead, Fatima Measham (convenor)

Drama: Carissa Lee, Chi Vu, Tim Byrne (convenor)

Poetry: Elena Gomez, Andy Jackson, Jeanine Leane (convenor)

Writing for Young Adults: Demet Divaroren, Michael Earp, Melissa Keil (convenor)

Unpublished Manuscript: Ellen Cregan, Luke Horton, Natalie Kon-yu (convenor)

Submissions from publishers and writers are open in September each year for titles published between 1 January and 31 December of the same year.

Tweet about the shortlisted titles using the #vpla2020 hashtag.