Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction

The Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction, formerly known as the Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction, is a prize category in the annual Victorian Premier's Literary Award. As of 2011 it has an remuneration 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.

The prize was formerly known as the Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction from inception until 2010, when the awards were re-established under the stewardship of the Wheeler Centre and restarted with new prize amounts and a new name. The Palmer Prize was valued at A$30,000 in 2010. The award was named after Vance Palmer, a leading literary critic. Palmer wrote reviews and presented a program called Current Books Worth Reading on ABC Radio. He also wrote books about Australian cultural life, including National Portraits (1940) A.G. Stephens: His Life and Work, (1941) Frank Wilmot (1942), Old Australian bush ballads (co-authored with Margaret Sutherland) (1951) and The Legend of the Nineties (1954). He was appointed in Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Commonwealth Literary Fund in 1947. The Palmer Prize was managed by the State Library of Victoria from 1997 to 2010.

Winners and shortlists

Blue ribbon () = winner.

• 2021^[1]
  • Richard Flanagan, The Living Sea of Waking Dreams
  • Gail Jones, Our Shadows
  • Laura Jean McKay, The Animals in That Country^[2]
  • Vivian Pham, The Coconut Children

• 2020^[3]
  • Yumna Kassab, The House of Youssef
  • Anna Krien, Act of Grace
  • Wayne Macauley, Simpson Returns
  • Christos Tsiolkas, Damascus^[4]
  • Tara June Winch, The Yield

• 2019^[5]
  • Robbie Arnott, Flames
  • Jay Carmichael, Ironbark
  • Morenno Giovannoni, The Fireflies of Autumn: And Other Tales of San Ginese
  • Gail Jones, The Death of Noah Glass
  • Melissa Lucashenko, Too Much Lip
  • Elise Valmorbida, The Madonna of the Mountains^[6]
• 2018^[7]
  • Steven Carroll, A New England Affair
  • Melanie Cheng, Australia Day
  • Michelle de Kretser, The Life to Come
  • Sofie Laguna, The Choke
  • Michael Sala, The Restorer
  • Kim Scott, Taboo
• 2017^[8]
  • Georgia Blain, Between a Wolf and a Dog
  • Micheline Lee, The Healing Party
  • Sean Rabin, Wood Green
  • Philip Salom, Waiting
  • Jock Serong, The Rules of Backyard Cricket
  • Laura Elizabeth Woollett, The Love of a Bad Man
• 2016^[9]
  • Miles Allinson, Fever of Animals
  • Stephanie Bishop, The Other Side of the World
  • James Bradley, Clade
  • Steven Carroll, Forever Young
  • Mirieille Juchau, The World Without Us
  • Charlotte Wood, The Natural Way of Things
• 2015^[10]
  • Ceridwen Dovey, Only the Animals
  • Sonya Hartnett, Golden Boys
  • Mark Henshaw, The Snow Kimono
  • Wayne Macauley, Demons
  • John A. Scott, N
  • Rohan Wilson, To Name Those Lost
• 2014^[11]
  • Hannah Kent, Burial Rites
  • Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North
  • Alex Miller, Coal Creek
  • Alexis Wright, The Swan Book
  • Tim Winton, Eyrie
  • Michelle de Kretser, Questions of Travel
• 2013 Presented in January 2014 (see 2014 entry) for books published in 2013.
• 2012^[12]
  • Gillian Mears, Foal's Bread
  • Gerald Murnane, A History of Books
  • Wayne Macauley, The Cook
  • Carrie Tiffany, Mateship with Birds
  • Anna Funder, All That I Am
  • Frank Moorhouse, Cold Light
• 2011^[13]
  • Gail Jones, Five Bells
  • Roger McDonald, When Colts Ran
  • Rohan Wilson, The Roving Party
  • Dominic Smith, Bright and Distant Shores
  • Craig Sherborne, The Amateur Science of Love
  • Kim Scott, That Deadman Dance

Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction (1985-2010)

Winners

• 2010 Truth by Peter Temple^[14]
• 2009 The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas ^[15]
• 2008 The Spare Room by Helen Garner ^[16]
• 2007 Carpentaria by Alexis Wright (Giramondo) ^[17]
• 2006 Theft: A Love Story by Peter Carey (Knopf/Random House) ^[18]
• 2005 Surrender by Sonya Hartnett (Viking/Penguin) ^[19]
• 2004 Slow Water by Annamarie Jagose (Vintage/Random House) ^[20]
• 2003 Shanghai Dancing by Brian Castro (Giramondo) ^[21]
• 2002 Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish by Richard Flanagan (Picador/Pan Macmillan Australia)
• 2001 True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey (Knopf)
• 2000 Out of Ireland by Christopher Koch (Doubleday/Random House Australia
• 1999 Mr Darwin's Shooter by Roger McDonald (Random House Australia)
• 1998 The Sound of One Hand Clapping by Richard Flanagan (Pan Macmillan)
• 1997 The Drowner by Robert Drewe (Pan Macmillan)
• 1996 Camille's Bread by Amanda Lohrey (Harper Collins)
• 1995 Dark Places by Kate Grenville (Pan Macmillan)
• 1994 What I Have Written by John A. Scott (McPhee Gribble)
• 1993 After China by Brian Castro (Allen & Unwin)
• 1992 Double-Wolf by Brian Castro (Allen & Unwin)
• 1991 Still Murder by Finola Moorhead (Penguin Books)
• 1990 Oceana Fine by Tom Flood (Allen & Unwin)
• 1989 Captivity Captive by Rodney Hall (McPhee Gribble)
• 1988 Holden's Performance by Murray Bail (Penguin Books)
• 1987 Second Sight by Janine Burke (Greenhouse)
• 1986 Illywhacker by Peter Carey (University of Queensland Press)
• 1985 Antipodes by David Malouf (Chatto & Windus)

Shortlists

2010^[22]

• Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey
• The Bath Fugues by Brian Castro
• Summertime by J.M. Coetzee
• Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
• Truth by Peter Temple

2009^[23]

• The Pages by Murray Bail
• Dog Boy by Eva Hornung
• The Boat by Nam Le
• Breath by Tim Winton
• The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas

2008^[24]

• The Spare Room by Helen Garner
• Diary of a Bad Year by J.M. Coetzee
• The Lost Dog by Michelle de Kretser

2007^[25]

• The Time We Have Taken by Steven Carroll
• Feather Man by Rhyll McMaster
• Carpentaria by Alexis Wright

References