$150,000 ARA HISTORICAL NOVEL PRIZE SUBMISSIONS OPEN FOR 2025
Enter the richest individual literary prize in ANZ!
The Historical Novel Society Australasia (HNSA), in partnership with founding sponsor ARA Group, are pleased to announce submissions have opened for the 2025 ARA Historical Novel Prize.
The overall prize pool is $150,000 with the winner of adult category receiving $100,000. The prize provides Australian and New Zealand historical novelists the chance to be rewarded and recognised, with the most significant purse for any individual literary prize in Australasia.
The ARA Historical Novel Prize has been running for 5 years ,and previous winners include Melissa Lucashenko (2024), Gail Jones (2023), Tom Keneally (2022), and YA author and two-time winner Katrina Nannestad (2021,2022). You can see all past prize winners here.
Two categories
The Prize encompasses two categories:
Adult: The overall prize winner receives $100,000, with an additional $5,000 to be awarded to each of the remaining two shortlisted authors.
Children and Young Adult (CYA): The overall prize winner receives $30,000 with an additional $5,000 to be awarded to each of the remaining two shortlisted authors.
Read the rules
The Awards are open to novels in which the majority of the narrative must have taken place at least 50 years before publication. The eligibility period applies to novels published between 1 July 2024 and 30 June 2025. Read the prize rules here.
Meet our judges
The judging panel for the Adult category includes Angelo Loukakis (Chair), Jane Harrison, Rashida Murphy, Stephanie Parkyn and Scott Whitmont. Children and Young Adult category judges include Mark Macleod (Chair), Rebecca Lim and Belinda Murrell. Learn more about our judges here.
Key dates
· Entries Open: 19 March at 9 am AEDT
· Entries Close: 11 June at 5pm AEST
· Longlists Announced: 3 September
· Shortlists Announced: 24 September
· Winners Announced: 16 October
A great opportunity for historical novelists
Elisabeth Storrs, Chair of the HNSA, says, “HNSA welcomes the opportunity to continue to elevate the genre by rewarding historical novelists with both literary acclaim and a significant tangible benefit. We are grateful to the ARA Group for its financial support, which will make a life changing contribution to each winners’ work.”
Edward Federman, the Executive Chair and CEO of the ARA Group says,
“I am proud to support The ARA Historical Novel Prize, which continues to celebrate excellence in writing in this increasingly popular genre. Our vision for the Prize is to reward the endeavours of outstanding Australian and New Zealand authors to create historical narratives which bridge together tales of our past and present.”