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2026 Shortlist

Fiction

Tenderfoot by Toni Jordan (Hachette Australia)

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (Penguin Australia)

One Hundred Years of Betty by Debra Oswald (Allen & Unwin)

Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth (Macmillan Australia)

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Non-Fiction

Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks (Hachette Australia)

The Mushroom Tapes by Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper & Sarah Krasnostein (Text Publishing)

Always Home, Always Homesick by Hannah Kent (Picador Australia)

A Bunker in Kyiv by John Lyons (ABC Books, HarperCollins Australia)

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Debut Fiction

The Butterfly Women by Madeleine Cleary (Affirm Press)

Daughters of Batavia by Stefanie Koens (HarperCollins Australia)

Melaleuca by Angie Faye Martin (HQ Fiction)

When Sleeping Women Wake by Emma Pei Yin (Hachette Australia)

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Illustrated Non-Fiction

The ADHD Brain Buddy by Matilda Boseley (Penguin Australia)

Planting for Native Birds, Bees and Butterflies by Jaclyn Crupi (Murdoch Books)

Wild by Design by Tim Pilgrim (Murdoch Books)

THAI by Nat Thaipun (Hardie Grant Books)

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Children's

There's a Prawn in Parliament House: The Kids' Guide to Australia's Amazing Democracy by Annabel Crabb, illustrated by First Dog on the Moon (Allen & Unwin Children's)

Harry and Gran Bake a Cake by Fiona McIntosh, illustrated by Sara Acton (Puffin)

Silverborn: The Mystery of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend (Lothian Children's Books)

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Young Adult

The Foal in the Wire by Robbie Coburn (Lothian Children's Books)

Eleanor Jones is Playing with Fire by Amy Doak (Penguin Australia)

Drift by Pip Harry (Lothian Children's Books)

Wandering Wild by Lynette Noni (Penguin Australia)

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Book of the Year announced 23 March 2026

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