Brooke Maddison wins the $20,000 Penguin Literary Prize 2026 for Driftwood

Established in 2017, the Penguin Literary Prize was created to discover, nurture and develop literary fiction writers, providing a platform for new and diverse voices to emerge.

Offering aspiring authors the chance to become a part of the Penguin Random House (PRH) community, the winner of the Penguin Literary Prize receives $20,000 and the opportunity to publish with Penguin, home to over 80 Nobel Prize laureates and hundreds of the world’s most widely read authors.

As one of the most prestigious prizes for an unpublished manuscript in Australia, the Penguin Literary Prize has a strong track record of discovering and developing new voices.

This year's winner, Brooke Maddison, is no exception; her manuscript Driftwood showcases the exceptional quality recognised by this award.

"I'm honoured and still a little bit shocked to have been awarded the Penguin Literary Prize. Thanks to the judges for this wonderful opportunity, and for seeing the potential in my manuscript. Writing can be such a solitary process, so I'm looking forward to working on Driftwood with the team at Penguin Random House," says Maddison.

With a distinct voice set against the wildness of the Australian landscape, Driftwood explores how traumatic events reverberate through families and examines how society expects people to respond to childhood abuse.

The manuscript was selected from a shortlist of six entries. The judging panel included Meredith Curnow, Publisher, and Kathryn Knight, Senior Editor, from PRH Australia; Cecile Moylan from Dillons Adelaide; Sophie Wigan from Harry Hartog, Carindale, winner of the BookPeople PRH Young Bookseller Award; and Melanie Peacock from Constant Reader Bookshop.

Of this year's winner, Sophie Wigan says, "Driftwood was a clear favourite of mine and, considering this is an early version of the manuscript, the quality and voice of Brooke's writing is fantastic. The setting of Stradbroke Island really confirmed this as an Australian story. You could not only feel the beauty of the landscape, but the haunting of these spaces andhow they can hold memory. When reading this, I knew who I could sell it to and that it needs to have a spot on our shelves."

Cecile Moylan says, "Driftwood is such a compelling piece of work. It is atmospheric, heartbreaking, and contains sometruly stunning prose throughout. I am so excited to see how it progresses."

Of the selection process, Meredith Curnow says, "Spending the day discussing Australian writing and writers with smart, committed booksellers is such a treat. While there were positive responses to all the shortlisted manuscripts, in the end we were unanimous: the beautiful and atmospheric Driftwood was our winner."

Since its inception, the Penguin Literary Prize has received submissions from across Australia spanning a wide range of genres and subjects. Each winner has gone on to publish with Penguin Random House Australia, with many securing international and foreign-language rights deals, taking Australian stories to readers around the world. Previous winners include Hitch by Kathryn Hind (2018), The Spill by Imbi Neeme (2019), The Rabbits by Sophie Overett (2020), Denizen by James McKenzie Watson (2021), On A Bright Hillside in Paradise by Annette Higgs (2022), Jade and Emerald by Michelle See-Tho (2023), The Occupation by Chloe Adams (2024) and Touch Grass by Mary Colussi (2025).

Submissions for the Penguin Literary Prize will open later this year.