The Sharpe Report – 17 October 2025

• The Wilderness Society has announced the winners for their 2025 Environmental Award for Children’s Literature and Karajia Award for Children’s Literature.
  Environment Award for Children’s Literature

• • Fiction: Ella and the Amazing Frog Orchestra / Cassy Polimeni
  • Non-Fiction: Tree / Claire Saxby
  • Picture-Fiction: Afloat / Kirli Saunders
• Karajia Award for Children’s Literature
  • Fiction: When the World Was Soft / Juluwarlu Group Aboriginal Corporation
  • Non-Fiction: Ask Aunty: Bush Survival Skills / Aunty Munya Andrews
  • Picture-Fiction: The Moon Story / Marshia Cook

• The Australian Public Libraries Statistical Report 2023-2024 has been released and shows a big rise in physical visits, borrowing and program anticipation across the country. The visits are up 10% from the previous year and emphasises the importance of libraries in Australia’s community.
• The longlist for the Voss Literary Prize has been announced. The prize is awarded to the best novel published in Australia the previous year.
  • The Burrow / Melanie Cheng
  • Compassion / Julie Janson
  • The Degenerates / Raeden Richardson
  • Ghost Cities / Siang Lu
  • Highway 13 / Fiona McFarlane
  • A Language of Limbs / Dylin Hardcastle
  • One Another / Gail Jones
  • Theory & Practice / Michelle de Kretser
  • Translations / Jumaana Abdu
  • Vortex / Rodney Hall
• Robbie Arnott and Tasma Walton have both been announced as the finalist in the adult category for the Historical Novel Prize. Arnott won with his book Dusk and Walton with their book I Am Nannertgarrook. Within the children’s and young adult category, Suzanne Leal won with her book The Year We Escaped.

Books in the Media

National

• Alexandrian Sphinx / Peter Jeffreys & Gregory Jusdanis (Biography)
• beautiful changelings / Maxine Beneba Clarke (Poetry)
• The Transformations / Andrew Pippos (Fiction)
• A Great Act of Love / Heather Rose (Fiction)

ACT

• Australia, A History / Tony Abbott (History)
• Boobs / Lisa Portolan and Amanda Goff (Non-Fiction)
• Defiance / Bob Brown (Memoir)
• The Friday Afternoon Club / Griffin Dunne (Biography)
• Mad Mabel / Sally Hepworth (Fiction)
• The Mandrusan Cocktail Companion / Michael Mandrusan and Zara Mandrusan (Food and Drink)
• Mischance Creek / Garry Disher (Fiction)
• The One Remaining / Paula McLean (Fiction)
• Softly as I Leave You / Priscilla Beaulieu Presley (Memoir)

NSW, QLD, VIC

• Average at Best / Astrid Jorgensen (Biography)
• The Bolthole / Peter Papathanasiou (Fiction)
• The Butterfly Thief / Walter Marsh (History)
• Fierceland / Omar Musa (Fiction)
• The Forsaken / Matt Rogers (Fiction)
• A Great Act of Love / Heather Rose (Fiction)
• The Impossible Fortune / Richard Osman (Fiction)
• Nobody’s Girl / Virginia Giuffre (Memoir)
• A Short History of the Gaza Strip / Anne Irfan (Non-Fiction)
• Turbulence: Australian foreign policy in the Trump era / Clinton Fernandes (Politics)
• Under the Influence of Salmon / Steve Harris (Non-Fiction)
• Vulture / Phoebe Greenwood (Fiction)
• Watching Over Her / Jean-Baptiste Andrea (Fiction)
• When Australia Became a Republic / Esther Anatolis (Non-Fiction)

TAS

• Buckeye / Patrick Ryan (Fiction)
• The Impossible Fortune / Richard Osman (Fiction)
• The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe / James Patterson & Imogen Edwards-Jones (Biography)
• Last One Out / Jane Harper (Fiction)
• Under the Influence of Salmon / Steve Harris (Non-Fiction)

*All information gathered from Books+Publishing