Journalist and researcher Amy McQuire’s literary piece Black Witness has won her the $30,000 Queensland Premier’s Award at the 2025 Queensland Literary Awards.
Judges said Black Witness, which is an interrogation of some of Australia’s most troubling criminal cases involving Indigenous people, was an example of outstanding scholarly rigour and moral clarity, earning it a gong for the Work of State Significance.
“Grounded in meticulous evidence, it offers a powerful indictment of systemic injustice and underscores the need for truth-telling. This is a vital contribution to Indigenous scholarship and the national reckoning we so urgently need,” the judges said.
The award was one of 11 categories, which shared in a prize pool of $261,000 on Friday night (September 26), honouring fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and published and unpublished work.
Queensland Arts Minister John-Paul Langbroek said the Queensland Literary Awards celebrated and showcased the creative talent and exceptional work of the state’s storytellers, poets and writers.
“Queensland’s literary sector is part of a vibrant statewide arts and cultural scene, which will play a pivotal role in sharing our unique stories with the world in the lead-up to the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games and beyond,” Minister Langbroek said.
State Librarian and CEO Vicki McDonald the Awards celebrated the work of storytellers whose passion and commitment to writing enriched the lives of readers throughout the world.
“The winners of this year’s awards provide us with the opportunity to wrestle with big ideas that provoke and inspire, reminding us of the power of literature to spark debate and connect people of different perspectives,” Ms McDonald said.
2025 Queensland Literary Awards winners
Work of State Significance. Prize: $30,000:
- Black Witness by Amy McQuire (University of Queensland Press).
Young Publishers and Writers Awards. Prize: 2 awards of $12,000 plus career development support to the value of $3000 each:
- Alex Philp.
- Sean West.
Fiction Book Award. Prize: $15,000:
- Rapture by Emily Maguire (Allen & Unwin).
Non-Fiction Book Award. Prize: $15,000:
- Näku Dhäruk The Bark Petitions: How the People of Yirrkala Changed the Course of Australian Democracy by Clare Wright (Text Publishing).
Children’s Book Award. Prize: $15,000:
- Little Bones by Sandy Bigna (University of Queensland Press).
Young Adult Book Award Prize: $15,000:
- Don’t Let the Forest In by CG Drews (Hachette Australia).
Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection. Prize: $17,500:
- The Oblong Plot by Chris Andrews (Puncher & Wattmann).
David Unaipon Award for an Emerging Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Writer Prize: $20,000, plus publication with University of Queensland Press:
- Finding Billy Brown by E.M. Crismani.
Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer. Prize: $15,000, plus publication with University of Queensland Press:
- Commonplaces by Gillian Hagenus.
People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award. Prize: $15,000:
- Nightingale by Laura Elvery (University of Queensland Press).
Queensland Writers Fellowships. Prize: 2 Fellowships of $20,000 each, plus professional development support to the value of $4500:
- Vuong Pham for Reborn.
- Mykaela Saunders for Dear Uncle.
