Western’s award-winning writers win at NSW Premier’s Literary Awards

Writers from Western Sydney University’s School of Humanities and Communications Arts, and the Writing and Society Research Centre, were shortlisted in the 2025 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards with one talented writer winning the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry.

Hasib Hourani, author of the award-winning title rock flight, published by Giramondo Publishing based at Western Sydney University, was announced as the winner of the $30,000 Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry as part of the 2025 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.

 

 

Additionally, Hasib Hourani’s rock flight has been shortlisted for the Association for the Study of Australian Literature’s Mary Gilmore Award, and for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Poetry.

A total of seven literary works published by Western Sydney University staff and alumni were shortlisted across five of the 14 award categories including:

Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry

Winner:

• Hasib Hourani – rock flight (Giramondo Publishing)

Shortlisted:

• Adjunct Associate Professor Chris Andrews – The Oblong Plot (Puncher & Wattmann)
• Dr Kate Middleton, Writing and Society Research Centre alumna – Television (Giramondo Publishing)

Christina Stead Prize for Fiction

Shortlisted:

• Emerita Professor Gail Jones – One Another (Text Publishing)

Translation Prize

Shortlisted:

• Adjunct Associate Professor Chris Andrews – You Glow in the Dark by Liliana Colanzi, translated from Spanish by Chris Andrews (New Directions Publishing)

Multicultural NSW Award

Shortlisted:

• Winnie Dunn, School of Humanities and Communication Arts alumna – Dirt Poor Islanders (Hachette Australia)

Glenda Adams Award for New Writing

Shortlisted:

• Graham Akhurst, Sydney Review of Books Board – Borderland (UWA Publishing)
• Hasib Hourani – rock flight (Giramondo Publishing)
• Winnie Dunn, School of Humanities and Communication Arts alumna – Dirt Poor Islanders (Hachette Australia)

Associate Professor Kate Fagan, Director of the Writing and Society Research Centre, congratulated Western’s winning and shortlisted authors, noting the results are just another example of the way the Centre supports and produces such vital, high calibre literary works.

Associate Professor Fagan:

The Western Sydney region is a true literary powerhouse. I feel immensely proud to work within such a dynamic and vital creative community.

Congratulations to all our winning and shortlisted authors from the School of Humanities and Communication Arts and the Writing and Society Research Centre. Giramondo Publishing again features in the lists, reflecting the excellent, ongoing work of Professor Ivor Indyk and his team.

In additional success, Giramondo authors Brian Castro and Winnie Dunn, plus Writing and Society Research Centre’s inaugural Parramatta Laureate in Literature, Yumna Kassab, were recently longlisted for the highly prestigious national Miles Franklin Award.

As a leading Australian tertiary hub for literary studies and creative writing, the University’s Writing and Society Research Centre is home to two major national publishing ventures – the Sydney Review of Books and Giramondo Publishing.

The 2025 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards winners were announced as part of the Sydney Writers’ Festival program and are administered by the State Library of NSW in association with Create NSW.

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