Shortlist announced for prestigious Roderick Literary award
The final shortlist for the prestigious $50,000 Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award in 2026 has been announced, with six literary works left vying for the annual prize from James Cook University’s Foundationfor Australian Literary Studies.
The Rot by Evelyn Araluen; Spirit of the Crocodile by Aaron Fa’aoso and Michelle Scott Tucker; Tiwi in Paris by Glen Farmer Illortaminni; Apron-Sorrow/Sovereign-Tea by Natalie Harkin; What Kept You? by Raaza Jamshed; and Always Home, Always Homesick by Hannah Kent make up this year’s shortlist, whittled down from almost 250 entries.
The prize is given to the best Australian book of the year that deals with any aspect of Australian life, with the shortlist showcases the diversity of genre that has become the Roderick’s signature, including a picture book, memoir, poetry, YA and literary fiction, and an academic study.
Of the shortlisted authors for 2026, there are some familiar names in poet Evelyn Araluen, novelist Hannah Kent and biographer Michelle Scott Tucker. Raaza Jamshed is a published writer, but What Kept You? is her first novel.
The other shortlisted authors show remarkable versatility, having established reputations as a scholar (Harkin), an actor (Fa’oso) or an artist (Farmer Illortaminni).
The winner of the 2026 Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award will be announced in Townsville in September and will be presented with the H.T. Priestley Memorial Medal, joining an illustrious list that includes revered names in Australian writing, among them creative writers, journalists and scholars.
Established nearly sixty years ago, the Award is named after the founding professor of English at James Cook University’s Townsville campus, Colin Roderick, and his wife Margaret, who collaborated on his literary scholarship. Margaret Roderick oversaw the massive donation that now funds the lucrative Award in perpetuity.
The shortlist books and judges’ comments:
Evelyn Araluen, The Rot (UQP). The dominant note in this collection is the demand for justice in a world that seems governed by the ‘the intimate machines of empire.’ The poems speak about the textures of contemporary life, as well as the colonial logic of extraction that continues to cast a shadow. Written in a voice that is at times ferocious and at times heartbreakingly fragile, they cast new light on contemporary Australia and its place in the world.
Aaron Fa’aoso and Michelle Scott Tucker with Lyn White, Spirit of the Crocodile (Allen & Unwin). A novel set on Saibai Island in the Torres Strait that features a twelve-year-old boy, Ezra, and his transition towards adulthood in a changing world. He is coping with centuries of battle with invaders, the encroachment of modern Australia that threatens to separate him from his family, and the pressures of a looming adulthood. Worth reading, whatever your age, for the illuminating insights into TI culture and Ezra’s struggles.
Natalie Harkin, Apron-Sorrow / Sovereign-Tea (Wakefield). This work is a multilayered response to the history of First Nations indentured domestic servitude in Australia. Combining deep archival research with the heartfelt ‘memory stories’ of women, this book lays bare the injustices of the past. A profound and moving work, with evocative artistic accompaniments that collectively offer a series of profound responses to this period of Australian history.
Glen Farmer Illortaminni, Tiwi in Paris (Thames & Hudson Australia). A wonderful, highly original picture book depicting the author’s adventures when he becomes lost one night in Paris. A perfect combination of words and illustrations brings a moving and funny story to life, as a potential clash of cultures turns into an exchange of cultures. Thoughtful and humane, this is a book for everyone.
Raaza Jamshed, What Kept You? (Giramondo). This novel focuses on a young woman, Jahan, who leaves her family home in Lahore for Australia, hoping to find not just education but a life free of family pressures. Pursued by her grandmother’s stories, she finds new challenges: in the opening chapter, there is a bushfire bearing down. Alternating chapters, set in the suburbs of Lahore and western Sydney, illuminate unexpected connections and differences between these places.
Hannah Kent, Always Home, Always Homesick: A Memoir (Picador). As the title suggests, this contained memoir explores the nature of belonging and not belonging. In recounting the shock of her teenage year as an exchange student in Iceland and its aftermath, Kent is able to trace her artistic and personal development. This book illuminates the inception and obsession of Kent’s first novel Burial Rites. It is a love letter to Iceland, to the idea of family, and the value of literature.