The Weekly is a proud sponsor of The Australian Book Industry Awards and this year’s shortlist is a tempting cornucopia of great reads from the past 12 months.
If you haven’t yet read these books, now is the time to catch up before awards night on May 2.
Watch this space for our announcement of the winners!
Author Jessica Townsend (pictured here with former Prime Minister Julia Gillard) had incredible success at the 2018 ABIA Awards, winning three categories for her book, Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow (Credit: The Australian Women’s Weekly)*
General Fiction Book of the Year
• Scrublands, Chris Hammer (Allen & Unwin)
• The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, Holly Ringland (HarperCollins Publishers)
• The Nowhere Child, Christian White (Affirm Press)
• The Rúin, Dervla McTiernan (HarperCollins Publishers)
• The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Heather Morris (Echo Publishing)
Literary Fiction Book of the Year
• Boy Swallows Universe, Trent Dalton (HarperCollins Publishers)
• Bridge of Clay, Markus Zusak (Pan Macmillan Australia)
• Shell, Kristina Olsson (Simon & Schuster Australia)
• The Shepherd’s Hut, Tim Winton (Penguin Random House Australia)
• Too Much Lip, Melissa Lucashenko (The University of Queensland Press)
Biography Book of the Year
• Back, After the Break, Osher Günsberg (HarperCollins Publishers)
• Challenge Accepted!, Celeste Barber (HarperCollins Publishers)
• Eggshell Skull, Bri Lee (Allen & Unwin)
• Johnathan Thurston: The Autobiography, Johnathan Thurston, with James Phelps (HarperCollins Publishers)
• Teacher, Gabbie Stroud (Allen & Unwin)
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland has been nominated for General Fiction Book of the Year. (Image: Supplied)
Book of the Year for Older Children (ages 13+)
• Amelia Westlake, Erin Gough (Hardie Grant Egmont)
• Catching Teller Crow, Ambelin Kwaymullina and Ezekiel Kwaymullina (Allen and Unwin)
• Hive, A.J. Betts (Pan Macmillan)
• Jane Doe and the Cradle of All Worlds, Jeremy Lachlan (Hardie Grant Egmont)
• Small Spaces, Sarah Epstein (Walker Books
Book of the Year for Younger Children (ages 7-12)
• Lenny’s Book of Everything, Karen Foxlee (Allen & Unwin)
• Real Pigeons Fight Crime, Andrew McDonald & Ben Wood (Hardie Grant Egmont)
• The 104-Storey Treehouse, Andy Griffiths, Terry Denton (Pan Macmillan Australia)
• The Bad Guys Episode 7: Do-You-Think-He-Saurus?!, Aaron Blabey (Scholastic Australia)
• Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow: Nevermoor 2, Jessica Townsend (Hachette Australia)
Children’s Picture Book of the Year (ages 0-6)
• All the Ways to be Smart, Davina Bell and Allison Colpoys (Scribble Kids’ Books)
• Cicada, Shaun Tan (Hachette Australia)
• Claris: The Chicest Mouse in Paris, Megan Hess (Hardie Grant Egmont)
• Macca the Alpaca, Matt Cosgrove (Scholastic Australia)
• Pig the Grub, Aaron Blabey (Scholastic Australia)
Pig the Grub which has been nominated for Children’s Picture Book of the Year has been a hit with kids. (Image: Supplied)
General Non-Fiction Book of the Year
• Any Ordinary Day, Leigh Sales (Penguin Random House Australia)
• Boys Will Be Boys, Clementine Ford (Allen & Unwin)
• Dear Santa, Samuel Johnson (Hachette Australia)
• No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison, Behrouz Boochani, Omid Tofighian (translator) (Pan Macmillan Australia)
• Welcome to Country: A Travel Guide to Indigenous Australia, Marcia Langton (Hardie Grant Publishing)
Illustrated Book of the Year
• A Painted Landscape: Across Australia from Bush to Coast, Amber Creswell Bell (Thames & Hudson Australia)
• Family: New vegetable classics to comfort and nourish, Hetty McKinnon (Pan Macmillan Australia)
• Mirka & Georges, Lesley Harding & Kendrah Morgan (Melbourne University Publishing)
• Special Guest, Annabel Crabb and Wendy Sharpe (Murdoch Books)
• The Cook’s Apprentice, Stephanie Alexander (Penguin Random House Australia)
International Book of the Year
• Becoming, Michelle Obama (Penguin Random House Australia)
• CIRCE, Madeline Miller (Bloomsbury Publishing)
• Less, Andrew Sean Greer (Hachette Australia)
• Lost Connections, Johann Hari (Bloomsbury Publishing)
• Ottolenghi SIMPLE, Yotam Ottolenghi (Penguin Random House Australia)
Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton has been a favourite amongst Audiobook listeners. (Image: Supplied)
Small Publishers’ Adult Book of the Year
• A Superior Spectre, Angela Meyer (Ventura Press)
• Blakwork, Alison Whittaker (Magabala Books)
• Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia, Dr Anita Heiss (ed.) (Black Inc Books)
• The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted, Robert Hillman (Text Publishing)
• The Geography of Friendship, Sally Piper (The University of Queensland Press)
Small Publishers’ Children’s Book of the Year
• Black Cockatoo, Carl Merrison and Hakea Hustler (Magabala Books)
• I Had Such Friends, Meg Gatland-Veness (Pantera Press)
• Rhyme Cordial, Antonia Pesenti (Scribble Kids’ Books)
• The Extremely Weird Thing that Happened in Huggabie Falls, Adam Cece (illustrated by Andrew Weldon) (Text Publishing)
• Whisper, Lynette Noni (Pantera Press)
The Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year
• Boy Swallows Universe, Trent Dalton (HarperCollins Publishers)
• The Nowhere Child, Christian White (Affirm Press)
• Eggshell Skull, Bri Lee (Allen & Unwin)
0• The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, Holly Ringland (HarperCollins Publishers)
• The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Heather Morris (Echo Publishing)
Audiobook of the Year
• Boy Swallows Universe, Trent Dalton, Narrator Stig Weymss (HarperAudio)
• Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia, ed Anita Heiss, Narrators Gregory J Fryer, Tamala Shelton, Lisa Maza, Tony Briggs, Hunter Page-Lochard, Shari Stebbens (Wavesound)
• The Clockmaker’s Daughter, Kate Morton, Narrator Joanne Froggatt (Bolinda)
• The Lost Man, Jane Harper, Narrator Steve Shanahan (Wavesound)
• The Trauma Cleaner, Sarah Krasnostein, Narrator Rachael Tidd (Audible)
1Visit the ABIA Awards website to read more.
