2025 Penguin Literary Prize shortlist announced

Penguin Random House Australia (PRH AU) is thrilled to announce the shortlist for the 2025 Penguin Literary Prize. The prize, launched in 2017, was established to discover, nurture and develop literary fiction writers, providing a platform for new and diverse voices to emerge.

Since its inception, the Penguin Literary Prize has received submissions from across Australia in a variety of genres and subjects with each winner going on to publish with PRH AU and many selling international and foreign-language rights, spreading Australian literature from the UK to Estonia and beyond. The shortlisted titles are:

• Bad Medicine by Emma Clancey. A literary thriller set in the hyper-competitive bubble of a prestigious Australian medical school.
• Salt by Siobhan Dermody. A story of survival told through the teenage eyes of two Indigenous brothers, Salt offers an exploration of the human spirit in the face of challenges.
• Touch Grass by Mary Colussi. A depressed deletion specialist starts to leave her body at unexpected moments and finds herself at the surreal centre of a global panic.
• The Fear of Empty Spaces by Rachel Bowman. A search for truth and a great unravelling in a remote and hostile environment.
• Where The Lotus Rises by Samara Lo. A mythology infused standalone, Chinese-inspired fantasy.
• So, the Words by Denise Raward. An exploration of love, loss, family and the haunting grip of secrets.

Meredith Curnow, Publisher at PRH AU said, ‘Travelling from Western Australia at the end of the Second World War to contemporary Sydney, an AI-dominated future to a mythological realm of fantasy, and traversing families, secrets and love. Readers across all parts of PRH AU relished their time with the outstanding variety of submissions and have come up with a competitive shortlist that will challenge and entertain the judging panel. Let the reading begin!’

The winner will be announced by Penguin Random House Australia on Thursday 12 June 2025. Offering aspiring authors from across Australia the chance to become a part of the Penguin Random House community, the prize includes $20,000 and the opportunity for the winner to publish with PRH AU. Previous winners include Kathryn Hind with Hitch, Imbi Neeme with The Spill, Sophie Overett with The Rabbits, James McKenzie Watson with Denizen, Annette Higgs with On A Bright Hillside in Paradise, Michelle See-Tho with Jade and Emerald and Chloe Adams with The Occupation to be published in July 2025.

Stay tuned, the winner will be announced 12 June 2025.