UQP titles shortlisted for the 2024 Queensland Literary Awards

We are so excited to announce the UQP titles shortlisted for the 2024 Queensland Literary Awards.

Queensland Premier’s Award for a Work of State Significance

Melissa Lucashenko with Edenglassie

Judges' comments:

Edenglassie  explores our tangled roots of land, belonging, and resistance through a rich amalgam of past and present Aboriginal lives. Making use of extensive research, Lucashenko recreates the early frontier in vivid detail, crafting a narrative that resonates deeply and elevates our understanding of Queensland’s soul.

Ellen van Neerven with Personal Score

Judges' comments:

In Personal Score, van Neerven paints an intimate portrait of a young person navigating the twin worlds of sport and sexuality. Through compelling prose and poetry, this character-driven narrative goes deep into First Nations resilience and self-discovery, offering a transformative reflection on the contemporary Australian experience.

The University of Queensland Fiction Book Award

Melissa Lucashenko with Edenglassie

Judges' comments:

Combining two narrative threads – one historical and one contemporary – Melissa Lucashenko’s Edenglassie tells stories of Indigenous life and love during the early years of settlement, and the present. Impeccably researched, the novel offers a story that is as powerful as it is challenging.

Siang Lu with Ghost Cities

Judges' comments:

Framed as a contemporary satire, Ghost Cities not only conjures the Truman Show-like Chinese city of Port Man Tou but imagines an ancient labyrinth as a mythical microcosm of society. Richly constructed, it celebrates the books and ideas that inspire artisanal and artistic creation.

The University of Queensland Non-Fiction Book Award

Ellen van Neerven with Personal Score

Judges' comments:

From an initial childhood obsession with soccer, Personal Score begins with the struggles of the writer to play the game they love. The book moves beyond this into a wider meditation on the multiple intersections of race, sexuality and identity that are woven into the fabric of Australian sport.

Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection

Jarad Bruinstroop with Reliefs

Judges' comments:

A relief can be a reprieve, and a work of art. In this moving collection, Bruinstroop’s poetry acts as both, responding to queer representations of men across time and space while offering his own. This offering queers “looking” itself. Historically, and currently, in a homophobic society, sometimes all a queer person has to communicate their desire is their gaze. Power and vulnerability exist in this moment of reception, and both are explored in depth here. These ekphrastic responses to interior and exterior landscapes are expertly rendered, becoming a meta mosaic of tenderness firmly and softly attentive to the body.

Steele Rudd Award for a Short Story Collection

John Richards with The Gorgon Flower

Judges' comments:

The Gorgon Flower is memorable, blending contemporary fiction with gothic themes in a clever, stylistically assured collection. Richards has produced a confident and strikingly imaginative debut.

Children's Book Award

Peter Carnavas withLeo and Ralph

Judges' comments:

Carnavas handles the sensitive topic of belonging with empathy and kindness in his heart-warming novel. When Leo needs a friend, Ralph is there, but only for as long as required. The author captures Leo’s fear of being different with tenderness and grace, and honours the power of imagination.

The Courier-Mail People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award

Carly-Jay Metcalfe with Breath

Judges' comments:

An uplifting account of the writer's experiences living with cystic fibrosis. Surviving a lung transplant aged 21 and the multiple complications thereafter, Metcalfe weaves a triumphant tale of indomitable spirit told with a passion and warmth that's irresistible.

Siang Lu with Ghost Cities

Judges' comments:

Framed as a contemporary satire, Ghost Cities not only conjures the Truman Show-like Chinese city of Port Man Tou but imagines an ancient labyrinth as a mythical microcosm of society. Richly constructed, it celebrates the books and ideas that inspire artisanal and artistic creation.

The Queensland Literary Awards will be announced live in person and online on the 5th of September 2024 from 7pm.

The online live stream is free, but you must reserve your spot here.

Congratulations to all the shortlisted authors!