Announcing the 2025 Shalom Collective Australian Jewish Writer Awards shortlists for books published in 2024, with winners to be announced on 24 August.
The Leslie and Sophie Caplan Award for Jewish Non-Fiction, in its second year, awards $10,000 for works of significant relevance to the Jewish experience. This year, the judges selected a range of books across various genres: narrative non-fiction, academic, investigative memoir, and illustrated monograph.
• Anna Jacobson, How to Knit a Human: A Memoir
• Jayne Persian, Fascists in Exile
• John Safran, Squat
• Michael Visontay, Noble Fragments
• Jana Vytrhlik, Treasures of Old Jewish Sydney
The Jewish Independent Young Jewish Writers Award, in its second year, awards $5,000 for works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry on Jewish subjects by authors aged 18-40. This year’s shortlist includes an illustrated cookbook, and memoir:
• Ellie Bouhadana, Ellie’s Table: Food from Memory and Food from Home
• Dassi Erlich with Ellen Whinnett, In Bad Faith
• Anna Jacobson, How to Knit a Human: A Memoir
The Szymon (Simon) Klitenik Award for Jewish Fiction is offered for the first time with a prize of $5,000 for a fiction book (novel or a collection of short stories). This year’s shortlist includes contemporary fiction, historical fiction, fable and romance:
• Shelley Davidow, The Girl with the Violin
• Joanne Fedler, The Whale’s Last Song
• Linda Margolin Royal, The Star on the Grave
• Jonathan Seidler, All the Beautiful Things You Love
The winners of all the awards will be announced at the awards ceremony in late August, including the winners of two new awards: The Edith Hausmann Award for Jewish Playwrights aged 18-45 offering a $10,000 prize for an unproduced script; and The Rosalind Sharbanee Meyer Award for Young Jewish Storytellers aged 18-35 for short stories and poetry offering prizes totalling $600.
Anna Stern, Deputy Director of Programs at Shalom Collective said, “This year’s shortlists are a captivating reflection of the strength, breadth and creativity of contemporary Jewish Australian writing and research. We are thrilled to be offering these awards for a second year, and to have expanded our prizes to include fiction, playwrighting, short stories and poetry. We hope that not only our authors benefit from the honour of being shortlisted, but that the public embraces this opportunity to learn more about the Jewish Australian experience, and contemporary Australian Jewish writing.”
Shalom Collective creates contemporary Jewish experiences to celebrate culture, strengthen identity and build a thriving community. Through these awards, Shalom Collective aims to inspire and support current and future Australian Jewish authors, and to promote their writing to wide audiences. Shalom Collective also runs the Sydney Jewish Writers Festival, and this award has received support from Melbourne Jewish Book Week.