A “stunning” debut novel described as “unambiguously and distinctively Queensland” has won the $30,000 top prize at the Queensland literary awards (QLAs).
Meriam and Wagedagam author Lenora Thaker won the Queensland premier’s award for a work of state significance for her historical novel The Pearl of Tagai Town, which was inspired by her ancestors’ lives in an unmapped shantytown known as Cairns-Malay Town. The town once housed Indigenous Australians, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Malaysian and Sri Lankan residents who had been segregated from the white population; it existed from the late 1800s until the late 1950s.
The QLA judges praised Thaker’s “accessible and deeply enjoyable” book for its “vivid sense of place”.
“Warm, richly drawn characters and an innovative integration of Ailan languages come together in a rich, cohesive whole, bringing new insight and fresh imaginative life to a far north Queensland community. The Pearl of Tagai Town is a stunning debut novel,” the judges wrote in a joint statement.
The winners were announced at a ceremony on Thursday night at Brisbane Powerhouse, as part of Brisbane writers festival.
Claire Thomas won the $15,000 fiction category for On Not Climbing Mountains, which follows a woman on a trip in Switzerland, who distracts herself from grief with research on famous names who had connections to the country.
The $15,000 nonfiction prize went to Find Me at the Jaffa Gate: An Encyclopaedia of a Palestinian Family by Australian-Palestinian writer Micaela Sahhar, about how her family’s story was shaped by the Nakba, when more than 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes by Israel during the country’s founding in 1948. Sahhar won the same category at the Victorian premier’s literary awards in February.
The $15,000 children’s book category was won by Once I Was a Giant by Zeno Sworder, which has also won book of the year at the Australian Book Industry awards and the children’s category at the Victorian premier’s literary award. Illustrated and written by Sworder, the book tells the tale of a tree transformed into a pencil that then writes its own story.
Julianne Negri won the $15,000 young adult category for her book The Belly of a Wolf, Helena Pantsis won the $15,000 short story category for her collection Mother Salad, and Eunice Andrada won the $17,500 poetry category for her collection Kontra.
The $15,000 people’s choice category was won by Sita Walker’s debut In a Common Hour, a novel that takes place across a single hour at a state high school. Walker has been a teacher for more than 20 years, and currently teaches English at a high school in Brisbane’s south-east.
Founded in 1999, the QLAs were previously known as the Queensland premier’s literary awards until 2012, when they were abolished by then premier Campbell Newman. Queensland’s literary community intervened to keep the awards alive.
The QLAs were administered by the State Library of Queensland from 2014 until 2025, when the awards were embroiled in controversy over the arts minister John-Paul Langbroek’s intervention to stop the library awarding a $15,000 fellowship to First Nations author K A Ren Wyld, over a social media post about the dead Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
Wyld said she had posted the comment in an “emotional moment”, and that her winning manuscript had nothing to do with Gaza.
Twelve QLA judges resigned in protest of Wyld’s treatment, leading to last year’s awards being delayed. Langbroek eventually handed their management over to the Brisbane writers festival from this year.
2026 Queensland literary awards: winners list
Queensland premier’s award for a work of state significance: The Pearl of Tagai Town by Lenora Thaker
Steele Rudd award for a short story collection: Mother Salad by Helena Pantsis
Judith Wright Calanthe award for a poetry collection: KONTRA by Eunice Andrada
Children’s book award: Once I Was a Giant by Zeno Sworder
Young adult book award: The Belly of a Wolf by Julianne Negri
Fiction book award: On Not Climbing Mountains by Claire Thomas
Nonfiction book award: Find Me at the Jaffa Gate by Micaela Sahhar
Lord mayor’s people’s choice Queensland book of the year award: In a Common Hour by Sita Walker
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