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 – the prizes for Fiction, Non-Fiction, Drama, Poetry, Award for Indigenous Writing, Children’s Literature and Writing for Young Adults – each receive $25,000.

The winner of the Award for an Unpublished Manuscript receives $15,000 in prize money and, introduced in 2022, a two-week residency at the McCraith House in Dromana as part of a partnership between The Wheeler Centre and RMIT Culture.

The winners of the six main suite 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.

•    Victorian Prize for Literature: Chinese Fish - Grace Yee
•    People's Choice Award: The Palestine Laboratory - Anthony Loewenstein
•    Fiction: Edenglassie - Melissa Lucashenko
•    Non-Fiction: Personal Score - Ellen van Neerven
•    Indigenous Writing: Close To The Subject - Daniel Browning
•    Drama: The Jungle and the Sea - S. Shakthidharan and Eamon Flack
•    Poetry: Chinese Fish - Grace Yee
•    Writing for Young Adults: A Hunger Of Thorns - Lili Wilkinson
•    Children's Literature: Ghost Book - Remi Lai
•    Unpublished Manuscript: Panajachel - Rachel Morton