The Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelists

The Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelists award was created in 1997 by the newspaper's literary editor, Susan Wyndham and is made annually. The awards recognise emerging writing talent, and are made to writers who are aged 35 years or younger when their book is first published.

The award criteria were relaxed in 2009 to allow the inclusion of short story collections. That year, Nam Le won the award with his short story collection, The Boat.

The judges change regularly, and the number of novelists named as "Best Young Australian Novelist" each year varies. Ten were named in the Award's first year.

Past winners
2024


 * André Dao, Anam
 * Emily O'Grady, Feast
 * John Morrissey, Firelight

2023


 * Jay Carmichael, Marlo
 * Katerina Gibson, Women I Know
 * George Haddad, Losing Face

2022


 * Ella Baxter, New Animal
 * Michael Burrows, Where the Line Breaks
 * Diana Reid, Love and Virtue

2021


 * Vivian Pham, The Coconut Children
 * Jessie Tu, A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing
 * K.M. (Kate) Kruimink, Treacherous Country

2020


 * Alice Bishop, A Constant Hum
 * Joey Bui, Lucky Ticket
 * Josephine Rowe, Here Until August

2019

2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997
 * Robbie Arnott, Flames
 * Tom Lee, Coach Fitz
 * Jamie Marina Lau, Pink Mountain on Locust Island
 * Ruby J. Murray, The Biographer's Lover
 * Jennifer Down, Pulse Points
 * Marija Pericic, The Lost Pages
 * Shaun Prescott, The Town
 * Pip Smith, Half Wild
 * Rajith Savandasa, Ruins
 * Jennifer Down, The Magic Hour
 * Julie Koh, Portable Curiosities
 * Josephine Rowe, A Loving, Faithful Animal
 * Murray Middleton, When There's Nowhere Left to Run
 * Abigail Ulman, Hot Little Hands
 * Michael Mohammed Ahmad, The Tribe
 * Ellen van Neerven, Heat and Light
 * Maxine Beneba Clarke, Foreign Soil
 * Omar Musa, Here Come the Dogs
 * Alice Pung, Laurinda
 * Luke Carman, An Elegant Man
 * Balli Kaur Jaswal, Inheritance
 * Hannah Kent, Burial Rites
 * Fiona McFarlane, The Night Guest
 * Romy Ash, Floundering
 * Paul D. Carter, Eleven Seasons
 * Zane Lovitt, The Midnight Promise
 * Emily Maguire, Fishing for Tigers
 * Ruby J. Murray, Running Dogs
 * Majok Tulba, Beneath the Darkening Sky
 * Melanie Joosten, Berlin Syndrome
 * Jennifer Mills, Gone
 * Rohan Wilson, The Roving Party
 * Lisa Lang, Utopian Man
 * Gretchen Shirm, Having Cried Wolf
 * Kristel Thornell, Night Street
 * Kalinda Ashton, The Danger Game
 * Andrew Croome, Document Z
 * Emily Maguire, Smoke in the Room
 * Craig Silvey, Jasper Jones
 * Nam Le, The Boat
 * Alice Nelson, The Last Sky
 * Kevin Rabalais, The Landscape of Desire
 * Steve Toltz, A Fraction of the Whole
 * Belinda Castles, The River Baptists
 * Max Barry, Company
 * Jessica Davidson, What Does Blue Feel Like?
 * Jessica White, A Curious Intimacy
 * Will Elliott, The Pilo Family Circus
 * Tara June Winch, Swallow the Air
 * Danielle Wood, Rosie Little's Cautionary Tales for Girls
 * Stephanie Bishop, The Singing
 * Leigh Redhead, Rubdown
 * Tony Wilson, Players
 * Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
 * Nicholas Angel, Drown Them in the Sea
 * Corrie Hosking, Ash Rain
 * Andrew Humphreys, Wonderful
 * Leigh Redhead, Peepshow
 * Craig Silvey, Rhubarb
 * M.J. Hyland, How the Light Gets In
 * Louise Limerick, Dying for Cake
 * Mardi McConnochie, The Snow Queen
 * Nerida Newton, The Lambing Flat
 * Matthew Reilly, Scarecrow
 * Danielle Wood, The Alphabet of Light and Dark
 * Emily Ballou, Father Lands
 * Sonya Hartnett, Of a Boy
 * Sarah Hay, Skins
 * Chloe Hooper, A Child's Book of True Crime
 * Tegan Bennett Daylight, What Falls Away
 * Stephen Gray, The Artist Is a Thief
 * Andrew Humphreys, The Weight of the Sun
 * Irini Savvides, Willow Tree and Olive
 * Sonya Hartnett, Thursday's Child
 * Malcolm Knox, Summerland
 * Hoa Pham, Vixen
 * James Bradley, The Deep Field
 * Julia Leigh, The Hunter
 * Georgia Blain, Closed for Winter
 * Bernard Cohen, Snowdome
 * Raimondo Cortese, The Indestructible Corpse
 * Lisa Merrifield, Mrs Feather and the Aesthetics of Survival
 * Camilla Nelson, Perverse Acts
 * Elliot Perlman, Three Dollars
 * James Bradley, Wrack
 * Bernard Cohen, The Blindman's Hat
 * Luke Davies, Candy
 * Delia Falconer, The Service of Clouds
 * Anthony Macris, Capital: Volume One
 * Clare Mendes, A Race Across Burning Soil
 * David Snell, The Illustrated Family Doctor
 * Emma Tom, Deadset
 * Bernard Cohen, Tourism
 * Matthew Condon, The Lulu Magnet
 * Fotini Epanomitis, The Mule's Foal
 * Catherine Ford, Dirt and Other Stories
 * Andrew McGahan, 1988
 * Fiona McGregor, Suck My Toes
 * Gillian Mears, The Grass Sister
 * Mandy Sayer, ''Mood Indigo]]
 * Christos Tsiolkas, Loaded
 * Beth Yahp, The Crocodile Fury