Colin Roderick Award

The Colin Roderick Award is presented annually by the Foundation for Australian Literary Studies at Queensland's James Cook University for "the best book published in Australia which deals with any aspect of Australian life".^[1] It was first presented in 1967 and now has a prize of A$50,000. Starting in 1980, the H. T. Priestley Memorial Medal has also been bestowed upon the award winner.

The Award was founded by Colin Roderick, an Australian "writer, editor, academic and educator".^[2]

• 2025: Khin Myint, Fragile Creatures : A Memoir^[3]
• 2024: Melissa Lucashenko, Edenglassie^[4]
• 2023: Sarah Holland-Batt, The Jaguar^[5]
• 2022: Emily Bitto, Wild Abandon^[6]
• 2021: Sofie Laguna, Infinite Splendours^[7]
• 2020: Sally Young, Paper Emperors: The rise of Australia’s newspaper empires^[8]

• 2019: Robert Drewe, The True Colour of the Sea^[9]
• 2018: Jock Serong, On the Java Ridge^[10]
• 2017: Josephine Wilson, Extinctions^[11]
• 2016: Gail Jones, A Guide to Berlin^[11]
• 2015: Not Awarded^[11]
• 2014: Michael Wilding, Wild Bleak Bohemia : Marcus Clarke, Adam Lindsay Gordon and Henry Kendall - A Documentary^[11]
• 2013: Ashley Hay, The Railwayman's Wife & Stephen Edgar, Eldershaw^[11]
• 2012: Thomas Keneally, The Daughters of Mars^[11]
• 2011: Gillian Mears, Foal's Bread^[11]
• 2010: Karen Kissane, Worst of Days: Inside the Black Saturday Firestorm^[11]

• 2009: Michael Cathcart, The Water Dreamers
• 2008: Graham Freudenberg, Churchill and Australia & James Boyce, Van Diemen's Land
• 2007: Malcolm Knox, Jamaica^[11]
• 2006: Deborah Robertson, Careless^[11]
• 2005: Peter Temple, The Broken Shore^[11]
• 2004: Alan Wearne, The Lovemakers & Tim Winton, The Turning^[11]
• 2003: Thomas Keneally, The Tyrant's Novel^[11]
• 2002: Don Watson, Recollections of a Bleeding Heart: A Portrait of Paul Keating PM^[11]
• 2001: Peter Rose, Rose Boys^[11]
• 2000: Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang^[11]

• 1999: Christopher Koch, Out of Ireland^[11]
• 1998: Robert Dessaix, (And So Forth)^[11]
• 1997: Peter Edwards, A Nation at War^[11]
• 1996: Tim Flannery, Roger Martin and Alexandra Szalay, Illustrator Peter Schouten, Tree Kangaroos^[11]
• 1995: Judy Cassab, Diaries^[11]
• 1994: Patrick Buckridge, The Scandalous Penton: A Biography of Brian Penton^[11]
• 1993: Cassandra Pybus, Gross Moral Turpitude: The Orr Case Reconsidered^[12]
• 1992: Ruth Park, A Fence Around the Cuckoo^[11]
• 1991: Joan Dugdale, Struggle of Memory^[11]
• 1990: Roland Griffiths-Marsh, Sixpenny Soldier^[11]

• 1989: Chris Symons, John Bishop: A Life for Music^[11]
• 1988: Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda^[11]
• 1987: Nancy Phelan, Home Is the Sailor and the Best of Intentions^[11]
• 1986: Fr Tom Boland, James Duhig^[11]
• 1985: John Gunn, The Defeat of Distance: Qantas 1919-1939^[11]
• 1984: Alan Gould, The Man Who Stayed Below^[11]
• 1983: Dudley McCarthy, Gallipoli to the Somme^[11]
• 1982: Geoffrey Serle, John Monash: A Biography^[11]
• 1981: Gavin Souter, A Company of Heralds^[11]
• 1980: Allan Grocott, Convicts, Clergymen and Churches^[11]

• 1979: Thea Astley, Hunting the Wild Pineapple^[11]
• 1978: Leslie Rees, History of Australian Drama^[11]
• 1977: Alan Marshall, The Complete Stories of Alan Marshall^[11]
• 1976: Gavin Souter, Lion and Kangaroo^[11]
• 1975: Denis Murphy, TJ Ryan^[11]
• 1974: David Malouf, Neighbours in a Thicket : Poems^[11]
• 1973: Dorothy Green, Ulysses Bound: Henry Handel Richardson and Her Fiction^[11]
• 1972: Sir Keith Hancock, Discovering Monaro^[11]
• 1971: Geoffrey Serle, The Rush to Be Rich^[11]
• 1970: Margaret Lawrie, Myths and Legends of Torres Strait^[11]

• 1969: Francis Webb, Collected Poems^[11]
• 1968: Gavin Souter, A Peculiar People^[11]
• 1967: Douglas Stewart, Collected Poems, 1936-1967^[11]

The Colin Roderick Award shortlists

Year	Author	Title	Result	Ref.
2025	Garry Disher	Sanctuary	Shortlisted	[13]
	Jane Godwin	Look Me in the Eye
	Gail Jones	One Another
	Leah Kaminsky	Disorders of the Blood
	Khin Myint	Fragile Creatures
	Lainie Anderson	The Death of Dora Black	Longlisted	[14]
	Robbie Arnott	Dusk
	Danielle Binks	Six Summers of Tash Leopold
	Darren McCullum	The Wobbly Bike
	John Wayne Parr	The Fighter

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