The Barbara Jefferis Award is offered biennially for “the best novel written by an Australian author that depicts women and girls in a positive way or otherwise empowers the status of women 
and girls in society”.
Barbara Jefferis was a feminist, a founding member of the Australian Society of Authors, its first woman President and, in the words of Thomas Keneally, “a rare being amongst authors, being both a fine writer but also organisationally gifted. She was a professional and internationally published writer long before most of us dreamed of such things”.
The Award is supported by the Barbara Jefferis Literary Fund, which was established as a result of a bequest from Barbara Jefferis’ husband, ABC film critic John Hinde, who died in 2006. The Australian Society of Authors is the Trustee of the Fund.
Past winners of the award include Lucy Treloar (Wolfe Island, 2020), Libby Angel (The Trapeze Act, 2018) Peggy Frew (Hope Farm, 2016), Margo Lanagan (Sea Hearts, 2014), Fiona McFarlane (The Night Guest, 2014), Anna Funder (All That I Am, 2012), G.L. Osborne (Come Inside, 2011), Kristina Olsson (The China Garden, 2010), Helen Garner (The Spare Room, 2009) and Rhyll McMaster (Feather Man, 2008).
In 2022, the Award prize pool is valued at $55,000, with $50,000 for the winner and $5,000 to be shared among the short-listed authors, making this one of the most generous literary awards in Australia.
For the latest Barbara Jefferis Award news, follow @barbarajefferisaward on Instagram.
We are thrilled to announce the shortlist for the 2022 Barbara Jefferis Award:
Read our shortlist announcement and the judges' comments here.
| Entries open for submissions | 28 March 2022 |
| Entries close for submissions | 9 May 2022, 5pm AEST |
| Shortlist announced | August 2022 |
| Winner announced at award ceremony | 29 September 2022 |
The ASA is thrilled to announce the judging panel for the 2022 Barbara Jefferis Award: Toni Jordan (Chair), Peggy Frew and Declan Fry.
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Toni Jordan is the author of six novels including the international best-seller Addition, which was long-listed for the Miles Franklin award; Nine Days, which was awarded Best Fiction at the 2012 Indie Awards, and Our Tiny, Useless Hearts (2016), which was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award and for the Voss Literary Award. Toni holds a Bachelor of Science in physiology and a PhD in creative arts. Her most recent novel is Dinner with the Schnabels (2022). |
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Peggy Frew is a writer and musician who lives in Naarm (Melbourne). Her work has been published in The Age, Kill Your Darlings, Meanjin, Qantas Magazine, NGV Magazine and The Big Issue. Her second novel, Hope Farm was the winner of the 2016 Barbara Jefferis Award, and her third novel, Islands, was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Her fourth novel, Wildflowers, will be published later this year. |
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Declan Fry has written for The Guardian, Astra Magazine, Overland, Australian Book Review, Westerly and elsewhere. His poetry has been shortlisted for the Judith Wright Poetry Prize and selected for The Best Australian Science Writing 2021. His Meanjin essay “Justice for Elijah or a Spiritual Dialogue with Ziggy Ramo, Dancing” received the 2021 Peter Blazey Fellowship and he was a winner of the 2021 Griffith Review Emerging Voices Competition. His latest work appears in Another Australia (Affirm Press). He currently lives with his partner, their pup Walnut, and a cat, Turnip. @_declanfry |
The Barbara Jefferis Award is for a novel (book-length work of fiction) first published commercially and distributed in the period 1 January 2020 – 31 December 2021 (“Publication Period”).
Each entrant must:
Entries must conform to the Award's Terms and Conditions.
Any questions about the Barbara Jefferis Award? Check out the Frequently Asked Questions.
Entries to the 2022 Barbara Jefferis Award closed on 9 May 2022.
The Australian Society of Authors, Trustee of the Barbara Jefferis Fund, was delighted to announce that the winner of the 2020 Barbara Jefferis Award was Lucy Treloar for Wolfe Island.
The judges noted:
‘Set on a sinking island, in a country riven by racial violence and social inequity, this brilliant novel demonstrates that catastrophes bring out the best and worst in people, and that lawless acts are sometimes necessary in order to save ourselves. Cat’s passing reference to The Grapes of Wrath at one point is apt, for the parables contained in Kitty Hawke’s meetings during her epic journey north to the border, were reminiscent of any everyman’s journey undertaken in classic works of literature. Kitty’s later reconciliation with Hartford, Claudie, and with Alejandra offer hope for the future.
Lucy Treloar’s novel is of immense contemporary relevance about the redemptive power of female intuition, resistance and resilience.'
Read the full announcement and view the online award ceremony here.
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