By arts editor Helen Musa

MARION ACT announced the recipients of the 2026 ACT Literary Awards at a gala presentation at Verity Lane Market in Civic on Thursday evening.

The top honour, the Marion Halligan Award, which recognises a work demonstrating uniqueness and literary excellence that transcends genre, went to The Dingo’s Noctuary, an illustrated verse novel by Judith Nangala Crispin (published by Puncher & Wattman).

The fiction award went to In the Name of the Trees by Merlinda Bobis (published by Spinifex Press), while the self-published fiction award was won by To Heal a Lyrebird by Kate Liston-Mills.

The ACT Literary Awards comprise four book award categories, alongside the Anne Edgeworth Emerging Writer’s Fellowship, the Finding Beauty Poetry Prize in memory of Roger Green and the Marion Halligan Award, established in memory of acclaimed Australian author Marion Halligan.

Author Bobis places her trust in trees

The Anne Edgeworth Emerging Writer’s Fellowships went to Kelsey Clifton ($1700) and Katherine Hammersley ($3452.75).

The Finding Beauty Poetry Prize, established in memory of lifelong environmental advocate, writer and editor Roger Green, was won by Lillace Kenta for Paper Crane, earning first prize of $5000.

The full list of winners in the 2026 ACT Literary Awards is:

Fiction

• Winner: In the Name of the Trees by Merlinda Bobis (Spinifex Press)
• Winner (self-published): To Heal a Lyrebird by Kate Liston-Mills

Nonfiction

• Winner: Versailles Mirrored: The Power of Luxury, Louis XIV to Donald Trump by Robert Wellington (Bloomsbury)
• Highly Commended: Playtime: A History of Australian Childhood by Emily Gallagher (Black Inc., La Trobe University Press)

Poetry

• Winner: Wita Witalana by Paul Collis (Recent Work Press)
• Highly Commended: Arsenic Flower by Dakota Feirer (Hachette Australia)

Children’s Literature

• Fiction: The Drought Kangaroo by Jackie French and Danny Snell (HarperCollins Australia)
• Older Readers: Washpool by Lisa Fuller (Hachette Australia)
• Nonfiction: Peculiar Parents by Stephanie Owen Reeder and Ingrid Bartkowiak (National Library of Australia Publishing)

The Finding Beauty Poetry Prize

• First: Paper Crane by Lillace Kenta ($5,000)
• Second: The Italian Chapel by Deborah Dawkings ($2,000)
• Shortlisted: The Anatomy of My Parent’s Hands by Michelle Brock ($750)
• Shortlisted: She Collects Things by Elizabeth Walton ($750)
• Honourable mentions: On William Barton by Julie Hollitt and Holding Still by Sara Pronger.

The Marion Halligan Award winner was The Dingo’s Noctuary by Judith Nangala Crispin (Puncher & Wattman).

Judith’s wild rides in search of a poetic story

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