Announcing the winners for the 2023 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards
The winners of the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards have been announced, with a total of $350,000 being awarded across the 14 prizes, and Debra Dank’s debut We Come With This Place taking out a record four awards, including Book of the Year.
According to Senior Judge, Jane McCredie: “This year’s awards celebrate the courage, diversity and sheer brilliance of contemporary Australian writing. Our judges assessed a record 856 entries exploring a huge range of style and subject matter. It’s exciting to see so many debut works recognised this year, and we look forward to hearing more from these writers in the future.”
Purchase copies of the prize-winning books and read the judges’ comments below.
The NSW Premier’s Literary Awards are administered by the State Library of NSW in association with Create NSW. The State Library acknowledges the sponsorship of Multicultural NSW, the University of Technology Sydney and the University of Sydney.
Award categories
View the shortlists and past winners for each category
About the Awards
The NSW Government is committed to increasing public engagement with the arts.
The NSW Premier’s Literary Awards are held annually. They are the richest and longest running state-based literary awards in Australia and cover all genres of writing.
The Awards provide an opportunity to highlight the importance of literacy and to encourage everyone to enjoy and learn from the work of our writers. These annual awards honour distinguished achievement by Australian writers, contribute to Australia’s artistic reputation, and draw international attention to some of our best writers and to the cultural environment that nurtures them.
Past winners have included such notable writers as Peter Carey, David Malouf AO, Elizabeth Jolley, Thomas Keneally AO, Tony Birch, Helen Garner, Ellen Van Neerven and Michelle de Kretzer.
Writers, translators and illustrators whose works are nominated must be living Australian citizens or persons holding permanent resident status.
The NSW Premier’s Literary Awards are presented by the NSW Government and administered by the State Library in association with Create NSW. We are pleased to acknowledge the support of Multicultural NSW, the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and the University of Sydney.
For more information, please contact the Senior Project Officers, Awards
Phone: (02) 9273 1582 or (02) 9273 1767

Jane McCredie
Senior Judge
Jane McCredie is an award-winning journalist, writer and reviewer who has been widely published in Australia and internationally. A former book publisher, she is the CEO of Writing NSW and the founder and director of the Quantum Words Festival of writing about science. She is the author of Making Girls and Boys: Inside the science of sex and was coeditor of the 2013 anthology of The Best Australian Science Writing.
Jane is a graduate of the Australia Council’s arts leaders program and has previously chaired both the Christina Stead and Douglas Stewart panels of the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.