Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction

The Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction, formerly known as the Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction, is a prize category in the annual Victorian Premier's Literary Award. As of 2011 it has an remuneration of A$25,000. The winner of this category prize vies with 4 other category winners for overall Victorian Prize for Literature valued at an additional A$100,000.

The prize was formerly known as the Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction from inception until 2010, when the awards were re-established under the stewardship of the Wheeler Centre and restarted with new prize amounts and a new name. The Palmer Prize was valued at A$30,000 in 2010. The award was named after Vance Palmer, a leading literary critic. Palmer wrote reviews and presented a program called Current Books Worth Reading on ABC Radio. He also wrote books about Australian cultural life, including National Portraits (1940) A.G. Stephens: His Life and Work, (1941) Frank Wilmot (1942), Old Australian bush ballads (co-authored with Margaret Sutherland) (1951) and The Legend of the Nineties (1954). He was appointed in Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Commonwealth Literary Fund in 1947. The Palmer Prize was managed by the State Library of Victoria from 1997 to 2010.

Winners and shortlists

Winners of the Overall Victorian Prize for Literature have a blue ribbon ().

Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction, winners and finalists

Year	Author	Title	Result	Ref.
2011	Kim Scott	That Deadman Dance	Winner	[1]
	Gail Jones	Five Bells	Finalist	[1]
	Roger McDonald	When Colts Ran	Finalist	[1]
	Craig Sherborne	The Amateur Science of Love	Finalist	[1]
	Dominic Smith	Bright and Distant Shores	Finalist	[1]
	Rohan Wilson	The Roving Party	Finalist	[1]
2012	Gillian Mears	Foal's Bread	Winner	[2][3]
	Anna Funder	All That I Am	Finalist	[2][4]
	Wayne Macauley	The Cook	Finalist	[2][4]
	Frank Moorhouse	Cold Light	Finalist	[2][4]
	Gerald Murnane	A History of Books	Finalist	[2][4]
	Carrie Tiffany	Mateship with Birds	Finalist	[2][4]
2014[a]	Alex Miller	Coal Creek	Winner	[5]
	Michelle de Kretser	Questions of Travel	Finalist	[6][7]
	Richard Flanagan	The Narrow Road to the Deep North	Finalist	[6][7]
	Hannah Kent	Burial Rites	Finalist	[6][7]
	Tim Winton	Eyrie	Finalist	[6][7]
	Alexis Wright	The Swan Book	Finalist	[6][7]
2015	Rohan Wilson	To Name Those Lost	Winner	[8][9]
	Ceridwen Dovey	Only the Animals	Finalist	[8][10][11]
	Sonya Hartnett	Golden Boys	Finalist	[8][10][11]
	Mark Henshaw	The Snow Kimono	Finalist	[8][10][11]
	Wayne Macauley	Demons	Finalist	[8][10][11]
	John A. Scott	N	Finalist	[8][10][11]
2016	Mireille Juchau	The World Without Us	Winner	[12][13]
	Miles Allinson	Fever of Animals	Finalist	[14]
	Stephanie Bishop	The Other Side of the World	Finalist	[14]
	James Bradley	Clade	Finalist	[14]
	Steven Carroll	Forever Young	Finalist	[14]
	Charlotte Wood	The Natural Way of Things	Finalist	[14]
2017	Georgia Blain	Between a Wolf and a Dog	Winner	[15]
	Micheline Lee	The Healing Party	Finalist	[16]
	Sean Rabin	Wood Green	Finalist	[16]
	Philip Salom	Waiting	Finalist	[16]
	Jock Serong	The Rules of Backyard Cricket	Finalist	[16]
	Laura Elizabeth Woollett	The Love of a Bad Man	Finalist	[16]
2018	Melanie Cheng	Australia Day	Winner	[17][18]
	Steven Carroll	A New England Affair	Finalist	[17][19]
	Michelle de Kretser	The Life to Come	Finalist	[17][19]
	Sofie Laguna	The Choke	Finalist	[17][19]
	Michael Sala	The Restorer	Finalist	[17][19]
	Kim Scott	Taboo	Finalist	[17][19]
2019	Elise Valmorbida	The Madonna of the Mountains	Winner	[20]
	Robbie Arnott	Flames	Finalist	[21]
	Jay Carmichael	Ironbark	Finalist	[21]
	Morenno Giovannoni	The Fireflies of Autumn: And Other Tales of San Ginese	Finalist	[21]
	Gail Jones	The Death of Noah Glass	Finalist	[21]
	Melissa Lucashenko	Too Much Lip	Finalist	[21]
2020	Christos Tsiolkas	Damascus	Winner	[22][23]
	Yumna Kassab	The House of Youssef	Finalist	[24]
	Anna Krien	Act of Grace	Finalist	[24]
	Wayne Macauley	Simpson Returns	Finalist	[24]
	Tara June Winch	The Yield	Finalist	[24]
2021	Laura Jean McKay	The Animals in That Country	Winner	[25][26][27]
	Richard Flanagan	The Living Sea of Waking Dreams	Finalist	[28][29]
	Gail Jones	Our Shadows	Finalist	[28][29]
	Vivian Pham	The Coconut Children	Finalist	[28][29][30]
2022	Melissa Manning	Smokehouse	Winner	[31][32]
	Larissa Behrendt	After Story	Finalist	[33]
	Jennifer Down	Bodies of Light	Finalist	[33]
	Briohny Doyle	Echolalia	Finalist	[33]
	John Hughes	The Dogs	Finalist	[33]
	S. J. Norman	Permafrost	Finalist	[33]
2023	Jessica Au	Cold Enough for Snow	Winner	[34][35][36]
	Brendan Colley	The Signal Line	Finalist	[34][37]
	Sophie Cunningham	This Devastating Fever	Finalist	[34][37]
	Paul Dalla Rosa	An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life	Finalist	[34][37]
	Yumna Kassab	The Lovers	Finalist	[34][37]
2024	Melissa Lucashenko	Edenglassie	Winner	[38][39]
	Hossein Asgari	Only Sound Remains	Finalist	[38]
	Eugen Bacon	Serengotti	Finalist	[38]
	Jen Craig	Wall	Finalist	[38]
	Charlotte Wood	Stone Yard Devotional	Finalist	[38]
	Jessica Zhan Mei Yu	But the Girl	Finalist	[38]
2025	Fiona McFarlane	Highway 13	Winner	[40]
	Melanie Cheng	The Burrow	Finalist	[41]
	Evie Wyld	The Echoes	Finalist	[41]
	David Owen Kelly	Host City	Finalist	[41]
	Michelle de Kretser	Theory & Practice	Finalist	[41]
	Ella Baxter	Woo Woo	Finalist	[41]

Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction (1985-2010)

Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction winners and finalists

Year	Author	Title	Result	Ref.
1985	David Malouf	Antipodes	Winner	[42]
1986	Peter Carey	Illywhacker	Winner	[43]
1987	Janine Burke	Second Sight	Winner	[44]
1988	Murray Bail	Holden's Performance	Winner	[45]
1989	Rodney Hall	Captivity Captive	Winner	[46]
	Marion Campbell	Not Being Miriam	Finalist	[47]
	Nigel Krauth	The Bathing Machine Called the Twentieth Century	Finalist	[47]
1990	Tom Flood	Oceana Fine	Winner	[48]
	Thea Astley	Reaching Tin River	Finalist	[49]
	Susan Johnson	Flying Lessons	Finalist	[49]
1991	Finola Moorhead	Still Murder	Winner	[50]
	Nigel Krauth	JF Was Here	Finalist	[51]
	Sam Watson	The Kadaitcha Sung	Finalist	[51]
1992	Brian Castro	Double-Wolf	Winner	[52]
	Peter Carey	The Tax Inspector	Finalist	[53]
	Jan McKemmish	Only Lawyers Dancing	Finalist	[53]
1993	Brian Castro	After China	Winner	[54]
	Liam Davison	Soundings	Finalist	[55]
	Marion Halligan	Lovers' Knots	Finalist	[55]
1994	John A. Scott	What I Have Written	Winner	[56]
1995	Kate Grenville	Dark Places	Winner	[57]
	Brian Castro	Drift	Finalist	[58]
	Tim Winton	The Riders	Finalist	[58]
1996	Amanda Lohrey	Camille's Bread	Winner	[59]
	Shane Maloney	The Brush-Off	Finalist	[60]
	Sue Woolfe	Leaning Towards Infinity	Finalist	[60]
1997	Robert Drewe	The Drowner	Winner	[61]
1998	Richard Flanagan	The Sound of One Hand Clapping	Winner	[62]
1999	Roger McDonald	Mr. Darwin's Shooter	Winner	[63]
2000	Christopher Koch	Out of Ireland	Winner	[64]
2001	Peter Carey	True History of the Kelly Gang	Winner	[65]
	Rodney Hall	The Day We Had Hitler Home	Finalist	[66]
	Frank Moorhouse	Dark Palace	Finalist	[66]
2002	Richard Flanagan	Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish	Winner	[67]
	Chloe Hooper	A Child's Book of True Crime	Finalist	[68]
	John Scott	The Architect	Finalist	[68]
2003	Brian Castro	Shanghai Dancing	Winner	[69]
	Michelle de Kretser	The Hamilton Case	Finalist	[70]
	Sonya Hartnett	Of a Boy	Finalist	[70]
2004	Annamarie Jagose	Slow Water	Winner	[71]
	J. M. Coetzee	Elizabeth Costello	Finalist	[72]
	Malcolm Knox	A Private Man	Finalist	[72]
2005	Sonya Hartnett	Surrender	Winner	[73]
	Gail Jones	Sixty Lights	Finalist	[74]
	Ian Townsend	Affection	Finalist	[74]
2006	Peter Carey	Theft: A Love Story	Winner	[75]
	J. M. Coetzee	Slow Man	Finalist	[76]
	Kate Grenville	The Secret River	Finalist	[76]
	Carrie Tiffany	Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living	Finalist	[76]
2007	Alexis Wright	Carpentaria	Winner	[77]
	Steven Carroll	The Time We Have Taken	Finalist	[78]
	Rhyll McMaster	Feather Man	Finalist	[78]
2008	Helen Garner	The Spare Room	Winner	[79]
	J. M. Coetzee	Diary of a Bad Year	Finalist	[80]
	Michelle de Kretser	The Lost Dog	Finalist	[80]
2009	Christos Tsiolkas	The Slap	Winner	[81]
	Murray Bail	The Pages	Finalist	[82]
	Eva Hornung	Dog Boy	Finalist	[82]
	Nam Le	The Boat	Finalist	[82]
	Tim Winton	Breath	Finalist	[82]
2010	Peter Temple	Truth	Winner	[83]
	Peter Carey	Parrot and Olivier in America	Finalist	[84]
	Brian Castro	The Bath Fugues	Finalist	[84]
	J. M. Coetzee	Summertime	Finalist	[84]
	Craig Silvey	Jasper Jones	Finalist	[84]

Notes

1. Prior to 2014, the award year was directly related to the year of publication. In 2014, the award year referred to books published in the previous year. That is, in 2012, the award went to books published in 2012. In 2014, the award went to books published in 2013.