Longlist announced for the Indie Book Awards 2021

The longlist for the 2021 Indie Book Awards has been announced, and it features an incredible array of new and established Aussie authors. Selected by independent booksellers, the Indie Awards celebrate the best Australian writing of the past year.

From the media release, independent booksellers are “uniquely placed to judge and recommend the best Aussie books [because of] their incredible passion and knowledge, their contribution to the cultural diversity of the Australian reading public, by recommending beyond the big brands, and above all, their love of quality writing.”

The awards are composed of six categories, with ten titles in each category. For the 2021 awards, the categories are: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Debut Fiction, Illustrated Non-Fiction, Children’s books (up to 12yo) and Young Adult (12+).

Among the stellar lineup of longlistees are a number of authors that have appeared on So you want to be a writer, the weekly podcast presented by the Australian Writers’ Centre. We’re proud to support Australian authors through our podcast and across our website and we’re thrilled to see so many familiar names on the list including Chris Flynn, Dervla McTiernan, Craig Silvey, Richard Fidler, Kate Forsyth and Belinda Murrell, Ewa Ramsey, Danielle Binks, Amelia Mellor, Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, and Ellie Marney.

Making the longlist of the Indie Book Awards is a huge achievement, and we congratulate all the authors. The shortlist will be released on 20 January with the Category Winners and the Overall Book of the Year Winner being announced on 22 March 2021.

The Longlist for the Indie Book Awards 2021:

FICTION LONGLIST

The Tolstoy Estate by Steven Conte (Fourth Estate Australia)
All Our Shimmering Skies by Trent Dalton (HarperCollins Australia)
The Living Sea of Waking Dreams by Richard Flanagan (Knopf Australia)
Mammoth by Chris Flynn (University of Queensland Press)
A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville (Text Publishing)
The Survivors by Jane Harper (Macmillan Australia)
Infinite Splendours by Sofie Laguna (Allen & Unwin)
The Last Migration by Charlotte McConaghy (Hamish Hamilton Australia)
The Good Turn by Dervla McTiernan (HarperCollins Australia)
Honeybee by Craig Silvey (Allen & Unwin)

NON-FICTION LONGLIST

Phosphorescence by Julia Baird (Fourth Estate Australia)
Stalin’s Wine Cellar by John Baker & Nick Place (Viking Australia)
The Last Lighthouse Keeper by John Cook with Jon Bauer (Allen & Unwin)
The Golden Maze: A Biography of Prague by Richard Fidler (ABC Books, HarperCollins Australia)
Searching for Charlotte: The Fascinating Story of Australia’s First Children’s Author by Kate Forsyth & Belinda Murrell (National Library of Australia)
The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku (Macmillan Australia)
I Catch Killers: The Life and Many Deaths of a Homicide Detective by Gary Jubelin with Dan Box (HarperCollins Australia)
People of the River by Grace Karskens (Allen & Unwin)
Truganini by Cassandra Pybus (Allen & Unwin)
Fire Country by Victor Steffensen (Hardie Grant Travel) 

DEBUT FICTION

The Hunted by Gabriel Bergmoser (HarperCollins Australia)
Kokomo by Victoria Hannan (Hachette Australia)
The Loudness of Unsaid Things by Hilde Hinton (Hachette Australia)
The Bluffs by Kyle Perry (Michael Joseph Australia)
The Coconut Children by Vivian Pham (Vintage Australia)
The Morbids by Ewa Ramsey (Allen & Unwin)
Song of the Crocodile by Nardi Simpson (Hachette Australia)
Sheerwater by Leah Swann (Fourth Estate Australia)
A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing by Jessie Tu (Allen & Unwin)
The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams (Affirm Press) 

ILLUSTRATED NON-FICTION

Sam Bloom: Heartache & Birdsong by Samantha Bloom, Cameron Bloom & Bradley Trevor Greive (ABC Books, HarperCollins Australia)
Plantopedia by Lauren Camilleri & Sophia Kaplan (Smith Street Books)
Golden Daze: Australian Surfing: Then to Now by Sean Doherty (Hachette Australia)
Rivers: The Lifeblood of Australia by Ian Hoskins, foreword by Don Watson (National Library of Australia)
To Asia, With Love by Hetty McKinnon (Plum)
The Flying Kangaroo: 100 Years of QANTAS by Neil Montagnana-Wallace (Affirm Press)
Loving Country by Bruce Pascoe & Vicky Shukuroglou (Hardie Grant Travel)
Beatrix Bakes by Natalie Paull (Hardie Grant Books)
The 99th Koala by Kailas Wild (Simon & Schuster Australia)
In Praise of Veg by Alice Zaslavsky (Murdoch Books)

CHILDREN’S

The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Dangerous Animals by Sami Bayly (Lothian Children’s Books)
The Year the Maps Changed by Danielle Binks (Lothian Children’s Books)
Wolfred by Nick Bland (Little Hare)
Skydragon by Anh Do, illustrated by James Hart (Allen & Unwin Children’s)
Sing Me The Summer by Jane Godwin, illustrated by Alison Lester (Affirm Press)
Finding Our Heart by Thomas Mayor (Hardie Grant Travel)
The Grandest Bookshop in the World by Amelia Mellor (Affirm Press)
Respect by Aunty Fay Muir, Sue Lawson, illustrated by Lisa Kennedy (Magabala Books)
Welcome, Baby, To This World by Jess Racklyeft (Affirm Press)
Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend (Lothian Children’s Books)

YOUNG ADULT

Future Girl by Asphyxia (Allen & Unwin Children’s)
The Lost Soul Atlas by Zana Fraillon (Lothian Children’s Books)
When Rain Turns to Snow by Jane Godwin (Lothian Children’s Books)
Catch Me If I Fall by Barry Jonsberg (Allen & Unwin Children’s)
Aurora Burning: The Aurora Cycle 2 by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff (Allen & Unwin Children’s)
None Shall Sleep by Ellie Marney (Allen & Unwin Children’s)
The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix (Allen & Unwin Children’s)
This One is Ours by Kate O’Donnell (University of Queensland Press)
The Erasure Initiative by Lili Wilkinson (Allen & Unwin Children’s)
Loner by Georgina Young (Text Publishing)