Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards
Your definitive guide to Australia’s best writing.

The Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards were inaugurated by the Victorian Government in 1985 to honour literary achievement by Australian writers. The awards are administered by the Wheeler Centre on behalf of the Premier of Victoria.
The winners of the main suite of awards – the prizes for Fiction, Non-Fiction, Drama, Poetry, Award for Indigenous Writing and Writing for Young Adults – each receive $25,000.
The winner of the Award for an Unpublished Manuscript receives $15,000 in prize money and, introduced in 2022, a two-week residency at the McCraith House in Dromana as part of a partnership between the Wheeler Centre and RMIT Culture.
The winners of the six main suite categories go on to contest the overall Victorian Prize for Literature, worth an additional $100,000. This is the single most valuable literary award in the country.
View the 2023 shortlist and highly commended works.
Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on Thursday 2 February 2023. Event details and invitations will be sent in 2023.
Information and enquiries
For further information, please contact:
Xanthea O’Connor
Awards Coordinator
Email: vpla@wheelercentre.com
Telephone: (03) 9094 7800