The South Australian Literary Awards, previously called the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature until 2024, are a set of literary awards given every two years. They were created in 1986 by the Government of South Australia. Before 2024, the awards were announced during Adelaide Writers' Week in March, as part of the Adelaide Festival. Starting in 2024, they are announced at a special event in October. The awards include prizes for both national and state-level writers, and they provide three fellowships for writers from South Australia. Additional categories have been added to the original four.
History
The Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature were started by the Government of South Australia in 1986. These awards are given during Writers' Week as part of the Adelaide Festival.
In 2020, the State Library of South Australia (SLSA) began managing the awards instead of Arts South Australia. Geoff Strempel, the library director, noticed that the awards were held late in the afternoon at the end of a busy Writers' Week. He believed this timing made them less noticeable compared to similar awards in other states.
Beginning in 2024, the awards are renamed the South Australian Literary Awards, matching the names of similar awards in other states. The ceremony will now take place in the Mortlock Chamber of the SLSA toward the end of the year, outside the festival season. The first renamed awards will occur in October 2024. The shortlist of nominees was announced on August 9, 2024.
Description
The Premier's Award is the largest prize, worth A$25,000. It is given for the best overall published work that has already won an award in another category. The total amount of money for all awards is A$167,500. This money is divided among 11 categories, including the Premier's Award. There are six awards for the whole country and five awards specific to South Australia.
Other national awards, each worth A$15,000 (equal to $16,853 in 2022) as of 2024, include the Fiction Award, Children's Literature Award, Young Adult Fiction Award, John Bray Poetry Award, and the Non-Fiction Award. South Australian awards and fellowships include the Jill Blewett Playwright's Award, the Arts South Australia / Wakefield Press Unpublished Manuscript Award, the Barbara Hanrahan Fellowship, the Max Fatchen Fellowship (named after Adelaide author and journalist Max Fatchen), and the Tangkanungku Pintyanthi Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Fellowship. Applications for each year's awards are open until mid-December of the previous year.
The awards are jointly funded by the South Australian government and the Libraries Board of South Australia.
National awards
Awarded since 2012, the honor recognizes John Jefferson Bray (1912–1995), who served as Chief Justice of South Australia, was an academic, and wrote poetry. The award celebrates his important contributions to Australian poetry. Winners:
South Australian awards & fellowships
(Offered 1992− ) Winners:
(Offered 1994– ) Winners:
(Carclew Fellowship 1988–2012; renamed Max Fatchen Fellowship in 2014 to honor children's writer Max Fatchen, who died in 2012.) Winners:
(Offered 2014– ; full name Tangkanungku Pintyanthi Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Fellowship) Winners:
Historic awards
(Offered from 2004 to 2010) Winners:
Previously known as the Faulding Award for Multimedia (offered from 1998 to 2004). Winners: