{"id":649251,"date":"2026-10-09T05:14:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T05:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/649251\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T05:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T05:14:12","slug":"queensland-literary-awards-stunning-debut-inspired-by-segregated-shantytown-wins-top-prize-australian-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/649251\/","title":{"rendered":"Queensland literary awards: \u2018stunning\u2019 debut inspired by segregated shantytown wins top prize | Australian books"},"content":{"rendered":"

A \u201cstunning\u201d debut novel described as \u201cunambiguously and distinctively Queensland\u201d has won the $30,000 top prize at the Queensland<\/a> literary awards (QLAs).<\/p>\n

The Pearl of Tagai Town by Lenora Thaker. Photograph: Text Publishing<\/p>\n

Meriam and Wagedagam author Lenora Thaker won the Queensland premier\u2019s award for a work of state significance for her historical novel The Pearl of Tagai Town, which was inspired by her ancestors\u2019 lives in an unmapped shantytown known as Cairns-Malay Town<\/a> in far north Queensland. Cairns-Malay Town once housed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, as well as Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Malaysian and Sri Lankan residents who had been segregated from the white population; the shantytown existed from the late 1800s until the late 1950s.<\/p>\n

The QLA judges praised Thaker\u2019s \u201caccessible and deeply enjoyable\u201d book for its \u201cvivid sense of place\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWarm, 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,\u201d the judges wrote in a joint statement.<\/p>\n

The winners were announced at a ceremony on Thursday night at Brisbane Powerhouse, as part of Brisbane writers festival.<\/p>\n

Claire Thomas won the $15,000 fiction category for On Not Climbing Mountains, <\/a>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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s story was shaped by the Nakba, when more than 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes by Israel during the country\u2019s founding in 1948. Sahhar won the same category at the Victorian premier\u2019s literary awards in February<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The $15,000 children\u2019s 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<\/a> and the children\u2019s category at the Victorian premier\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The $15,000 people\u2019s choice category was won by Sita Walker\u2019s 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\u2019s south-east.<\/p>\n

Founded in 1999, the QLAs were previously known as the Queensland premier\u2019s literary awards until 2012, when they were abolished by then premier Campbell Newman. Queensland\u2019s literary community intervened to keep the awards alive.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s intervention to stop the library awarding a $15,000 fellowship to First Nations author K A Ren Wyld<\/a>, over a social media post about the dead Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.<\/p>\n

Wyld said she had posted the comment in an \u201cemotional moment\u201d, and that her winning manuscript had nothing to do with Gaza.<\/p>\n

Twelve QLA judges resigned in protest<\/a> of Wyld\u2019s treatment, leading to last year\u2019s awards being delayed. Langbroek eventually handed their management over to the Brisbane writers festival from this year.<\/p>\n

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2026 Queensland literary awards: winners list<\/p>\n

Queensland premier\u2019s award for a work of state significance: The Pearl of Tagai Town by Lenora Thaker<\/p>\n

Steele Rudd award for a short story collection: Mother Salad by Helena Pantsis<\/p>\n

Judith Wright Calanthe award for a poetry collection: KONTRA by Eunice Andrada<\/p>\n

Children\u2019s book award: Once I Was a Giant by Zeno Sworder<\/p>\n

Young adult book award: The Belly of a Wolf by Julianne Negri<\/p>\n

Fiction book award: On Not Climbing Mountains by Claire Thomas<\/p>\n

Nonfiction book award: Find Me at the Jaffa Gate by Micaela Sahhar<\/p>\n

Lord mayor\u2019s people\u2019s choice Queensland book of the year award: In a Common Hour by Sita Walker<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A \u201cstunning\u201d debut novel described as \u201cunambiguously and distinctively Queensland\u201d has won the $30,000 top prize at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[288,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-649251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-books","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}