Shortlist Announcement | 2025 Northern Territory Literary Awards

Library & Archives NT would like to congratulate all writers who have been shortlisted for the 2025 Northern Territory Literary Awards!

This year, over 240 entries were received across 7 categories. We would like to thank all writers who entered the awards for their contributions to NT literature.

The winners will be announced at the NT Literary Awards ceremony on Wednesday 24 September at 5.30pm at Library & Archives NT, 54 Cavenagh Street Darwin City. The ceremony will be livestreamed at Red Kangaroo Books in Alice Springs and on the Library & Archives NT Facebook page.

The 2025 Northern Territory Literary Awards shortlist includes:

Brown’s Mart Theatre
Black light – Jada Alberts
Scrag – Ryanna Clayton
Refuge – Zan Kershaw

Charles Darwin University Creative Non-Fiction Award
Twenty-five cents – Dave Clark
Severance and being seen  – Alex Eve

Charles Darwin University Essay Award
Rheumatic heart disease: a call to action on preventable, poverty-attributable deaths in the Northern Territory – Sophie Collins
Climate change, heat, gender and violence: supporting a safer future in the Northern Territory – Jeanette Shepherd

Flash Fiction Award
The important affair of the first male Moneypenny  – Roland Bull
Silence – Satendra Kumar
My grandma used to love cake  – Julie Lebreton

Kath Manzie Youth Award 
Emotional equilibrium – Sabrina Leafe
Five, four, three, two, one – Jolyn Sun
Deserted – Lucy Tinapple

NT Writers’ Centre Poetry Award
Blood letting – Sophie Benkemoun
Time in our peace – Barbara Eather
River country – Susan Fielding
In the desert where I live – Meg Mooney
In the sauna at Lasseters – Mitch Mitchell

Zip Print Short Story Award
Eternal – Belinda Mawby
Hell or high water – A'Mhara McKey