# Victorian Premier's Prize for Writing for Young Adults

The Victorian Premier's Prize for Writing for Young Adults, formerly known as the Victorian Premier's Prize for Young Adult Fiction, is a prize category in the annual Victorian Premier's Literary Award. As of 2011 it has an enumeration of A$25,000. The winner of this category prize vies with 4 other category winners for overall Victorian Prize for Literature valued at an additional A$100,000.
From inception in 1999 to 2010, the award was administered by the State Library of Australia and known as the Victorian Premier's Prize for Young Adult Fiction. In 2011 stewardship changed to the Wheeler Centre where the prize was re-launched with a new name, rules and prize amount. According to the State Library of Australia, "This prize [was] offered for a published work of fiction or collection of short stories written for a readership between the ages of 13 and 18. Publishers may consider submitting books that are appropriate to young adult readers but not published under a young adult imprint. Literary merit is the major judging criterion. In the case of illustrated books, the additional criterion of literary and artistic unity is considered."

## Honorees

| Year | Author | Title | Result |
| 2011 | Cassandra Golds | The Three Loves of Persimmon | Winner |
| 2011 | Cath Crowley | Graffiti Moon | Finalist |
| 2011 | Doug MacLeod | The Life of a Teenage Body-Snatcher | Finalist |
| 2012 | John Larkin | The Shadow Girl | Winner |
| 2012 | Doug MacLeod | The Shiny Guys | Finalist |
| 2012 | Vikki Wakefield | All I Ever Wanted | Finalist |
| 2013 | Presented in January 2014 (see 2014 entry) for books published in 2013. | Presented in January 2014 (see 2014 entry) for books published in 2013. | Presented in January 2014 (see 2014 entry) for books published in 2013. |
| 2014 | Barry Jonsberg | My Life as an Alphabet | Winner |
| 2014 | Vikki Wakefield | Friday Brown | Finalist |
| 2014 | Fiona Wood | Wildlife | Finalist |
| 2015 | Claire Zorn | The Protected | Winner |
| 2015 | Justine Larbalestier | Razorhurst | Finalist |
| 2015 | Jaclyn Moriarty | The Cracks in the Mountain | Finalist |
| 2016 | Marlee Jane Ward | Welcome to Orphancorp | Winner |
| 2016 | Meg McKinlay | A Single Stone | Finalist |
| 2016 | Sally Morgan | Sister Heart | Finalist |
| 2017 | Randa Abdel-Fattah | When Michael Met Mina | Winner |
| 2017 | Zana Fraillon | The Bone Sparrow | Finalist |
| 2017 | Emily Gale | The Other Side of Summer | Finalist |
| 2018 | Demet Divaroren | Living on Hope Street | Winner |
| 2018 | Alison Evans | Ida | Finalist |
| 2018 | Pip Harry | Because of You | Finalist |
| 2019 | Ambelin Kwaymullina and Ezekiel Kwaymullina | Catching Teller Crow | Winner |
| 2019 | Clare Atkins | Between Us | Finalist |
| 2019 | Erin Gough | Amelia Westlake | Finalist |
| 2020 | Helena Fox | How It Feels to Float | Winner |
| 2020 | Holden Sheppard | Invisible Boys | Finalist |
| 2020 | Vikki Wakefield | This Is How We Change the Ending | Finalist |
| 2021 | Cath Moore | Metal Fish, Falling Snow | Winner |
| 2021 | Rawah Arja | The F Team | Finalist |
| 2021 | Christie Nieman | Where We Begin | Finalist |
| 2022 | Felicity Castagna | Girls in Boys' Cars | Winner |
| 2022 | Leanne Hall | The Gaps | Finalist |
| 2022 | Rebecca Lim | Tiger Daughter | Finalist |
| 2023 | Kate Murray | We Who Hunt the Hollow | Winner |
| 2023 | Matt Ottley | The Tree of Ecstasy and Unbearable Sadness | Finalist |
| 2023 | Rhiannon Wilde | Where You Left Us | Finalist |
| 2024 | Lili Wilkinson | A Hunger of Thorns | Winner |
| 2024 | Helena Fox | The Quiet and the Loud | Finalist |
| 2024 | Will Kostakis | We Could Be Something | Finalist |
| 2025 | Emma Lord | Anomaly | Finalist |
| 2025 | Ambelin Kwaymullina | Liar's Test | Finalist |
| 2025 | Barry Jonsberg | Smoke & Mirrors | Finalist |

## Victorian Premier's Prize for Young Adult Fiction

| Year | Author | Title | Publisher |
| 1988 | John Marsden | So Much to Tell You | Walter McVitty Books |
| 1989 | Caroline Macdonald | The Lake at the End of the World | Hodder and Stoughton |
| 1990 | Diana Kidd | Onion Tears | Collins |
| 1991 | Gary Crew | Strange Objects | Heinemann |
| 1992 | Eleanor Nilsson | The House Guest | Viking |
| 1993 | Anna Fienberg | Ariel, Zed and the Secret of Life | Allen and Unwin |
| 1994 | Ursula Dubosarsky | The White Guinea-Pig | Viking Books |
| 1995 | Allan Baillie | Songman | Viking Books |
| 1996 | Sonya Hartnett | Sleeping Dogs | Viking Books |
| 1997 | Catherine Jinks | Pagan's Scribe | Omnibus Books |
| 1998 | Judith Clarke | Night Train | Penguin |
| 1999 | Phillip Gwynne | Deadly, Unna? | Penguin |
| 2000 | Helen Barnes | Killing Aurora | Penguin |
| 2001 | James Moloney | Touch Me | University of Queensland Press |
| 2002 | Meme McDonald and Boori Monty Pryor | Njunjul the Sun | Allen & Unwin |
| 2003 | David Metzenthen | Wildlight: A Journey | Penguin |
| 2004 | Margo Lanagan | Black Juice | Allen & Unwin |
| 2005 | Scott Westerfeld | So Yesterday | Penguin |
| 2006 | Ursula Dubosarsky | Theodora's Gift | Viking/Penguin |
| 2007 | Simmone Howell | Notes from the Teenage Underground | Pan Macmillan |
| 2008 | Brigid Lowry | Tomorrow All Will Be Beautiful | Allen & Unwin |
| 2009 | Sue Saliba | Something in the World Called Love | Penguin |
| 2010 | Kirsty Eagar | Raw Blue | Penguin |