The Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelists

The Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelists award was created in 1997 by the newspaper's literary editor, and is made annually. The awards recognise emerging writing talent, and are made to writers who are aged 35 years or younger when their book is first published.^[1]

The award criteria were relaxed in 2009 to allow the inclusion of short story collections.^[2] That year, Nam Le won the award with his short story collection, The Boat.

The judges change regularly, and the number of novelists named as "Best Young Australian Novelist" each year varies. Ten were named in the Award's first year.

Past winners[]

2021^[3]

• Vivian Pham, The Coconut Children
• Jessie Tu, A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing
• K.M. (Kate) Kruimink, Treacherous Country

2020^[4]

• , A Constant Hum
• , Lucky Ticket
• , Here Until August

2019^[5]

• , Flames
• , Coach Fitz
• , Pink Mountain on Locust Island
• , The Biographer's Lover

2018^[6]

• , Pulse Points
• , The Lost Pages
• , The Town
• , Half Wild

2017^[7]

• , Ruins
• , The Magic Hour
• , Portable Curiosities
• , A Loving, Faithful Animal

2016^[2]

• , When There's Nowhere Left to Run
• , Hot Little Hands

2015^[2]

• Michael Mohammed Ahmad, The Tribe
• Ellen van Neerven, Heat and Light
• Maxine Beneba Clarke, Foreign Soil
• Omar Musa, Here Come the Dogs
• Alice Pung, Laurinda

2014^[2]

• Luke Carman, An Elegant Man
• Balli Kaur Jaswal, Inheritance
• Hannah Kent, Burial Rites
• Fiona McFarlane, The Night Guest

2013^[2]

• , Floundering
• Paul D. Carter, Eleven Seasons
• , The Midnight Promise
• Emily Maguire, Fishing for Tigers
• , Running Dogs
• , Beneath the Darkening Sky

2012^[2]

• , Berlin Syndrome
• Jennifer Mills, Gone
• Rohan Wilson, The Roving Party

2011^[2]

• , Utopian Man
• , Having Cried Wolf
• , Night Street

2010^[2]

• Kalinda Ashton, The Danger Game
• , Document Z
• Emily Maguire, Smoke in the Room
• Craig Silvey, Jasper Jones

2009^[2]

• Nam Le, The Boat
• Alice Nelson, The Last Sky
• , The Landscape of Desire
• Steve Toltz, A Fraction of the Whole

2008^[2]

• Belinda Castles, The River Baptists
• Max Barry, Company
• , What Does Blue Feel Like?
• , A Curious Intimacy

2007^[2]

• Will Elliott, The Pilo Family Circus
• Tara June Winch, Swallow the Air
• Danielle Wood, Rosie Little's Cautionary Tales for Girls

2006^[2]

• , The Singing
• Leigh Redhead, Rubdown
• Tony Wilson, Players
• Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

2005^[2]

• , Drown Them in the Sea
• , Ash Rain
• Andrew Humphreys, Wonderful
• Leigh Redhead, Peepshow
• Craig Silvey, Rhubarb

2004^[2]

• M.J. Hyland, How the Light Gets In
• , Dying for Cake
• Mardi McConnochie, The Snow Queen
• Nerida Newton, The Lambing Flat
• Matthew Reilly, Scarecrow
• Danielle Wood, The Alphabet of Light and Dark

2003^[2]

• Emily Ballou, Father Lands
• Sonya Hartnett, Of a Boy
• Sarah Hay, Skins
• Chloe Hooper, A Child's Book of True Crime

2002^[2]

• Tegan Bennett Daylight, What Falls Away
• , The Artist Is a Thief
• Andrew Humphreys, The Weight of the Sun
• , Willow Tree and Olive

2001^[2]

• Sonya Hartnett, Thursday's Child
• Malcolm Knox, Summerland
• Hoa Pham, Vixen

2000^[2]

• James Bradley, The Deep Field
• Julia Leigh, The Hunter

1999^[2]

• Georgia Blain, Closed for Winter
• Bernard Cohen, Snowdome
• , The Indestructible Corpse
• , Mrs Feather and the Aesthetics of Survival
• , Perverse Acts
• Elliot Perlman, Three Dollars

1998^[2]

• James Bradley, Wrack
• Bernard Cohen, The Blindman's Hat
• Luke Davies, Candy
• Delia Falconer, The Service of Clouds
• Anthony Macris, Capital: Volume One
• , A Race Across Burning Soil
• , The Illustrated Family Doctor
• Emma Tom, Deadset

1997^[2]

• Bernard Cohen, Tourism
• Matthew Condon, The Lulu Magnet
• Fotini Epanomitis, The Mule's Foal
• , Dirt and Other Stories
• Andrew McGahan, 1988
• Fiona McGregor, Suck My Toes
• Gillian Mears, The Grass Sister
• Mandy Sayer, Mood Indigo]]
• Christos Tsiolkas, Loaded
• , The Crocodile Fury

References[]