2025 Year In Review: Award Winners
Discover the award winning books of 2025, focusing on the major literary and crime writing awards.
International Booker Prize
 | Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq WINNER A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix |
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Booker Prize
 | Flesh by David Szalay WINNER The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits |
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The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
 | James by Percival Everett WINNER Headshot: A Novel by Rita Bullwinkel Mice 1961 by Stacey Levine The Unicorn Woman by Gayl Jones |
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The Miles Franklin Literary Award
 | Ghost Cities by Siang Lu WINNER Chinese Postman by Brian Castro Theory and Practice by Michelle de Kretser |
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The Stella Prize
 | Theory and Practice by Michelle de Krester WINNER Cactus Pear For My Beloved by Samah Sabawi Black Convicts: How slavery shaped Australia by Santilla Chingaipe Translations by Jumaane Abdu |
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Women’s Prize for Fiction
 | The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden WINNER Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis Good Girl by Aria Aber Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout The Persians by Sanam Mahloudji |
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The Australian/Vogel Literary Award
 | First Year by Kristina Ross WINNER
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The Victorian Premier’s Literary Award (Fiction)
 | Highway 13 by Fiona McFarlane WINNER The Echoes by Evie Wyld Host City by David Owen Kelly Theory & Practice by Michelle de Kretser Woo Woo by Ella Baxter |
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Prime Minister’s Literary Award
| Best Fiction Award Theory & Practice by Michelle de Krester WINNER Always Will Be: Stories of Goori sovereignty from the future of the Tweed by Mykaela Saunders |
 | Best Non-Fiction Award Mean Streak by Rick Morton WINNER Cactus Pear for My Beloved by Samah Sabawi Fragile Creatures: A memoir by Khin Myint |
 | Australian History Award Critical Care: Nurses on the frontline of Australia’s AIDS crisis by Geraldine Fela WINNER Australia in 100 Words by Amanda Laugesen Naku Dharuk The Bark Petitions by Clare Wright The Wild Reciter: Poetry and Popular Culture in Australia 1890-the Present by Peter Kirkpatrick |
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The Danger Awards
 | Best Crime Fiction Bone Lands by Pip Fioretti WINNER Joy Moody is Out of Time by Kerry Mayne Pheasant’s Nest by Louise Milligan |
 | Best crime fiction debut |
 | Best True Crime Black Witness by Amy McQuire WINNER |
 | Reader’s Choice |
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The Davitt Awards
 | Best Non-Fiction Crime Book The Lasting Harm: Witnessing the Trial of the Century by Lucia Osborne-Crowley WINNER Crimes of the Cross by Anne Manne |
 | Best Adult Crime Novel To The River by Vikki Wakefield WINNER The Rewilding by Donna M Cameron Save Haven by Shankari Chandran What I Would Do to You by Georgia Harper
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 | Best Debut Crime Book What I Would Do to You by Georgia Harper WINNER
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 | Reader’s Choice |
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The Ned Kelly Awards
 | Best True Crime Novel A Thousand Miles from Care by Steve Johnson WINNER They’ll Never Hold Me by Michael Adams The Kingpin and the Crooked Cop by Neil Mercer |
. | Best Crime Fiction Novel The Creeper by Margret Hickney WINNER Unbury the Dead by Fiona Hardy |
. | Best Debut Crime Fiction All You Took From Me by Lisa Kenway WINNER Down the Rabbit Hole by Shaeden Berry A Town Called Treachery By Mitch Jennings |
 | Best International Crime A Case of Matricide by Graeme Macrae Burnet WINNER Return to Blood by Michael Bennett Leave the Girls Behind by Jacquline Bublitz The Waiting by Michael Connelly Home Truths by Charity Norman |
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The Daggers
 | The Gold Dagger (Best Crime Novel) The Book of Secrets by Anna Mazzola WINNER The Bell Tower by R.J. Ellory I Died at fallow Hall by Bonnie Burke-Patel Guide Me Home by Attica Locke |
 | Ian Fleming Steel Dagger (Best Espionage, Psychological or Adventure Thriller) Dark Ride by Lou Berney WINNER Nobody’s Hero by MW Craven Hunted by Abir Mukherjee |
 | New Blood Dagger (Best Crime Novel by a First-Time Author) All Us Sinners by Katy Massey WINNER Miss Austen Investigates by Jessica Bull Knife River by Justine Champine Three Burials by Anders Lustgarten A Curtain Twitcher’s Books of Murder by Gay Marris Deadly Animals by Marie Tierney |
 | Historical Dagger The Betrayal of Thomas True by A.J. West WINNER Banquet of Beggars by Chris Lloyd The Book of Secrets by Anna Mazzola Poor Girls by Claire Whitfield |
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