2026 Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award Shortlist
The shortlist has been announced for the $50 000 Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award: The Rot by Evelyn Araluen; Spirit of the Crocodile by Aaron Fa’aoso and Michelle Scott Tucker; Tiwi in Paris by Glen Farmer Illortaminni; Apron-Sorrow/Sovereign-Tea by Natalie Harkin; What Kept You? by Raaza Jamshed; and Always Home, Always Homesick by Hannah Kent.
The Roderick Award recognises the best original book, published in Australia in the previous calendar year, that deals with some aspect of Australian life. The shortlist showcases the diversity of genre that is the Roderick signature, including a picture book, memoir, poetry, YA and literary fiction, and an academic study.
The judges’ comments:
"Evelyn Araluen, The Rot (UQP). The dominant note in this collection is the demand for justice in a world that seems governed by the ‘the intimate machines of empire.’ The poems speak about the textures of contemporary life, as well as the colonial logic of extraction that continues to cast a shadow. Written in a voice that is at times ferocious and at times heartbreakingly fragile, they cast new light on contemporary Australia and its place in the world."
Open to books of all kinds, and routinely attracting nearly 250 entries, the Roderick is “the hardest literary award to win” according to its judges, who this year are Dr Lachlan Brown, Dr Leigh Dale, Professor Emerita Susan Martin, Professor Emeritus Paul Salzman (FAHA) and Mary Vernon.
The winner of the 2026 Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award will be announced in Townsville in September and will be presented with the H.T. Priestley Memorial Medal, thereby joining an illustrious list that includes revered names in Australian writing, among them creative writers, journalists and scholars.
Established nearly sixty years ago, the Award is named after the founding professor of English at James Cook University’s Townsville campus, Colin Roderick, and his wife Margaret, who collaborated on his literary scholarship. Margaret Roderick oversaw the massive donation that now funds the lucrative Award in perpetuity.
Learn more about the award here.
