Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Debut Fiction

The Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Debut Fiction is a prize category in the annual Indie Book Awards (Australia) presented by Australian Independent Booksellers.^[1]

The award was established in 2008.

Winners and shortlists

Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Debut Fiction

Year	Author	Title	Result	Ref.
2008	Toni Jordan	Addition	Winner	[2]
2009	Sonia Orchard	The Virtuoso	Winner	[2]
2010	Not awarded			[2]
2011	Jon Bauer	Rocks in the Belly	Winner	[2]
2012	Anna Funder	All That I Am	Winner	[2]
	Favel Parrett	Past the Shallows	Finalist	[3]
	Rohan Wilson	The Roving Party	Finalist	[3]
	Adrienne Ferreira	Watercolours	Finalist	[3]
2013	M. L. Stedman	The Light Between Oceans	Winner	[4]
	Paul D. Carter	Eleven Seasons	Finalist	[5]
	Peter Twohig	The Cartographer	Finalist	[5]
	Hannah Richell	Secrets of the Tides	Finalist	[5]
2014	Hannah Kent	Burial Rites	Winner	[6]
	Inga Simpson	Mr Wigg	Finalist	[7]
	Graeme Simsion	The Rosie Project	Finalist	[7]
	Fiona McFarlane	The Night Guest	Finalist	[7]
2015	Maxine Beneba Clarke	Foreign Soil	Winner	[8]
	Brooke Davis	Lost & Found	Finalist	[9]
	Emily Bitto	The Strays	Finalist	[9]
	Christine Piper	After Darkness	Finalist	[9]
2016	Lucy Treloar	Salt Creek	Winner	[10]
	Shirley Barrett	Rush Oh!	Finalist	[11]
	Robyn Cadwallader	The Anchoress	Finalist	[11]
	Antonia Hayes	Relativity	Finalist	[11]
2017	Jane Harper	The Dry	Winner	[12]
	Melissa Ashley	The Birdman's Wife	Finalist	[13]
	David Dyer	The Midnight Watch	Finalist	[13]
	Holly Throsby	Goodwood	Finalist	[13]
2018	Mark Brandi	Wimmera	Winner	[14]
	Melanie Cheng	Australia Day	Finalist	[15]
	Dennis Glover	The Last Man in Europe	Finalist	[15]
	Sarah Schmidt	See What I Have Done	Finalist	[15]
2019	Trent Dalton	Boy Swallows Universe	Winner	[16]
	Chris Hammer	Scrublands	Finalist	[17]
	Heather Morris	The Tattooist of Auschwitz	Finalist	[17]
	Christian White	The Nowhere Child	Finalist	[17]
2020	Suzanne Daniel	Allegra in Three Parts	Winner	[18]
	Anne Brinsden	Wearing Paper Dresses	Finalist	[19]
	Felicity McLean	The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone	Finalist	[19]
	Molly Murn	Heart of the Grass Tree	Finalist	[19]
2021	Pip Williams	The Dictionary of Lost Words	Winner	[20]
	Kyle Perry	The Bluffs	Finalist	[21]
	Nardi Simpson	Song of the Crocodile	Finalist	[21]
	Jessie Tu	A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing	Finalist	[21]
2022	Lyn Yeowart	The Silent Listener	Winner	[22]
	Hannah Bent	When Things Are Alive They Hum	Finalist	[23]
	Campbell Mattinson	We Are Not Men	Finalist	[23]
	Diana Reid	Love & Virtue	Finalist	[23]
2023	Tracey Lien	All That's Left Unsaid	Winner	[24]
	Shelley Burr	Wake	Finalist	[25]
	Omar Sakr	Son of Sin	Finalist	[25]
	Hayley Scrivener	Dirt Town	Finalist	[25]
2024	Jane Harrison	The Visitors	Winner	[26]
	Madeleine Gray	Green Dot	Finalist	[27]
	Kerryn Mayne	Lenny Marks Gets Away With Murder	Finalist	[27]
	Molly Schmidt	Salt River Road	Finalist	[27]
2025	Lauren Keegan	All the Bees in the Hollows	Winner	[28]
	Susannah Begbie	The Deed	Finalist	[29]
	Anna Johnston	The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife	Finalist	[29]
	Louise Milligan	Pheasants Nest	Finalist	[29]