Past Awards

The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards were established in 1985 by The Hon. John Cain, Premier of Victoria, to mark the centenary of the births of Vance and Nettie Palmer and to honour and reward literary achievement by Australian writers.  

The winners of the main suite of awards – the prizes for Fiction, Non-Fiction, Drama, Poetry, The John Clarke Prize for Humour, 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 The winner of the Award for an Unpublished Manuscript receives $15,000. 

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. 

The Awards are administered by The Wheeler Centre on behalf of the Victorian Government.

Explore the previous winners and nominees below.