Prime Minister’s Literary awards 2025: Michelle de Kretser wins $80,000 for Theory & Practice | Prime Minister’s Literary Awards

When Michelle de Kretser decides to use it ACCEPTING THE STELLA AWARD In May, he admitted that the conversation could be a “career enter” to talk about Israel’s Gaza occupation and the role of the Australian government in the ongoing humanitarian crisis.

On Monday, De Krets gathered the $ 80,000 Prime Minister Literature Award for the Eighth novel, the same book, the eighth novel, theory & practice.

As the title states, working skillfully tests the assumptions of readers about autobiography and fiction while addressing the relationship between intention and actions. The judges praised the novel as “elegant, fun and sharp sharp”.

The theory and practice determined in Melbourne in the 1980s is followed by a female student who assumed a thesis on Virginia Woolf, traveling around the bohemian life, radical politics and academic obsession. This believes that today’s political climate echoed in the political climate of a study that questiones the incompatibility between ideals and actions.

He told Guardian a few days before the award on Monday, “There is always a gap between what we say and what we do.”

“However, the current crisis in Gaza made this gap terrible. The genocide revealed the gap of the West’s guarantees about international law and human values. Nobody believes it anymore.”

De Kretser’s Stella award speech earlier this year was a brave condemnation of corporate silence. Im I haven’t encountered direct reactions, ”he said. “But I’m sure some of whatsapp groups are persona grara.

Despite the risks, Kretser called on developing writers to talk correctly. “Art is about reality. If you talk correctly, your job will be stronger. But I understand fear. People have families and jobs to be protected.

“I still have to ask myself, will I be in peace with what I say or what I don’t say?

In the non -fictional category, Saturday paper journalist Rick Morton won for Mean Streak, the fluffy account of the Robodebt scandal.

The judges praised the book for meticulous reporting and deep empathy.

“With a single -mind determination, Morton successfully dripped the shame of a government into a fascinating account of what will happen when we lose our collective conscience,” he said.

Morton first covered the royal commission to Robodebt as a journalist, but did not plan to visit the story again. “I’m tired and honestly I didn’t want to go to my side again,” Guardian said to Guardian.

This changed when the final report landed in July 2023.

“I got all these e -mails from the senior public officials called in the report, I complained that I was bad. And I thought, what do you know? I don’t think nobody learned something from it.”

At that moment, an average line of bureaucratic persecution and a deep personal reckoning, just like

Mort Radicalized me in the way I was not prepared, Mort said Morton. “This made me angry. He made me extremely screamed and sarcastic, which is not the person I am as a person.

“Writing the book, which covers the royal commission, took three years from my life. I will never come back. I just won… And I’m glad the book existed, but I wish someone else had done it.”

This year’s winners reflect a literary landscape that defies the problems of justice, real and institutional accountability.

Academic Geraldine Fela, the University of Macquarie, won the history award for critical care, a document of nurses working on the front of the AIDS crisis of AIDS. The Book of Judges praised for meticulous research and compassionate storytelling and emphasized the frequently overlooked role of health workers in shaping the public health policy and community flexibility.

David Brooks, a novelist, poet and essay from the Blue Mountains, won the category of poetry for the other side of the daylight, a collection praised for his lyrical depth and philosophical clarity.

In the children’s literature category, Queensland writer and illustrator Peter Carnavas received the Leo and Ralph award, a sensitive story about friendship and imagination.

The Young Adult Literature Award went to Krystal Sutherland for Invocations, a supernatural tension that blends gothic fear with the themes of contemporary power, trauma and resistance.

Prime Minister Literature Awards are the richest awards in the country with a 600,000 -dollar tax -free prize pool.

Each category up to $ 100,000: it offers $ 80,000 for the winner and $ 5,000 for entry up to the maximum short list.