More than a decade after his internationally celebrated debut, The Boat, Vietnamese-Australian author Nam Le has claimed both Book of the Year and the Multicultural Award at the 2025 New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards. His follow-up work—a daring, book-length epic poem titled 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem—fought off stiff competition to take home the $10,000 top prize as well as the $30,000 award recognizing outstanding contributions to multicultural literature. Other major winners included Fiona McFarlane (Christina Stead Prize for Fiction), Hasib Hourani (Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry), James Bradley (Douglas Stewart Prize for Nonfiction) and a host of emerging and established writers across genre categories.
Context: The NSW Premier’s Literary Awards
Australia’s Oldest and Most Prestigious State Prizes
Established in the 1970s, the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards stand as the oldest state-sponsored literary prizes in the country, boasting a total prize pool of $360,000. Categories span fiction, nonfiction, poetry, children’s and young-adult literature, drama, translation and new writing, as well as dedicated awards for Indigenous and multicultural authors. With generous prize money and high public visibility, the awards are widely regarded as benchmarks of literary excellence in Australia.
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The top honor—Book of the Year—has historically identified works that reshape national conversations, spotlight diverse voices and advance literary innovation. Previous winners include Tim Winton, Kate Grenville and Michelle de Kretser. Against this backdrop, Nam Le’s triumph marks a significant moment both for his career and for the recognition of diasporic poetry within mainstream Australian letters.
Nam Le’s Journey: From Refugee Beginnings to Literary Acclaim
Childhood and Early Career
Born in Vietnam and evacuated to Australia as an infant refugee in the late 1970s, Nam Le grew up in Brisbane, where his parents instilled a deep respect for education and storytelling. He pursued law at the University of Queensland, ultimately working as a corporate lawyer before dedicating himself to literature. Le first captured global attention in 2008 with his debut, The Boat—a collection of thematically linked short stories set across four continents—which won the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Grace Leven Prize for Poetry and multiple state awards.
The Sixteen-Year Interlude
Despite the acclaim of The Boat, Le did not publish a second book until 2024. During the intervening years, he balanced writing with academic fellowships, teaching stints and a family life that included raising two children. In interviews, Le has noted that his next major project evolved slowly—fragments of verse and reflection collected over decades, alongside notebooks filled with observations on war, family and racial injustice. “I’ve basically been writing it my whole life,” he told Guardian Australia shortly before learning of his award. “There are lines in the book that date back 20, 30 years.”
36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem: Form and Themes
A Book-Length Poetic Experiment
Le’s 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem is not a conventional narrative but an experimental, book-length poem divided into 36 meditative sections. Each “way” explores a different poetic strategy—imagist snapshots of Saigon markets, elegiac addresses to displaced grandparents, fables of wartime survival and interludes of mythic lyricism. Visually, the text employs shifting typography, white space, interludes of Vietnamese script and photographic inserts, inviting readers to inhabit multiple registers of memory and language.
Exploring Diasporic Identity
Central to the work is the experience of the Vietnamese diaspora: children born in exile who navigate the space between inherited trauma and contemporary belonging. Le confronts the legacies of the Vietnam War—refugee camps, bombings and forced departures—while tracing intergenerational dialogues on race, assimilation and cultural erasure in Australia, Canada and the United States. Racism, displacement, family secrets and acts of remembrance loom large, yet the poem also celebrates food, ritual and the resilience of communities bound by shared history.
Judges’ Praise: “Passionate and Bold” Depiction
In awarding 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem the Book of the Year title, the judges lauded its “poetic brilliance, power and accessibility.” They described the collection as “damning, frank and unwavering in its exploration of diasporic identity and its implications both personal and political. It is passionate and bold in its depiction of otherness, trauma and struggle—demanding consideration, care and intellect of its reader—and cerebral in its reception and contemplation.”
Le’s Reaction and Reflections
A Lifelong Project Realized
Reached by phone shortly before the awards ceremony, Nam Le expressed both surprise and gratitude. “I’m overwhelmed,” he said. “Winning Book of the Year for a poem is unexpected—but it feels like recognition not just of my work, but of the many voices and silences I’ve tried to weave together over a lifetime. So much of this book grew out of conversations with my parents, the community in Brisbane, elders who survived hardship and taught me how to carry our stories.”
Le emphasized the collaborative nature of the project, thanking his editor, typographer and the small press—Invisible Inc.—that championed the experimental form. “They trusted me to take risks,” he noted. “This award belongs to all of us who believe that poetry can reshape how we see ourselves and our country.”
Other Major Winners: Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction and Beyond
Christina Stead Prize for Fiction: Fiona McFarlane’s Highway 13
Fiona McFarlane, already twice shortlisted for the Stella Prize, earned the $40,000 Christina Stead Prize for Fiction with Highway 13—a linked collection of crime stories centered on a serial killer whose victims span continents and decades. Judges praised McFarlane’s “beautifully poised prose” and her ability to “turn straw into gold,” exploring how “violence in one corner of the world can ripple across generations and geographies.”
Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Hasib Hourani’s Rock Flight
Lebanese-Palestinian writer Hasib Hourani claimed the $10,000 Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry with Rock Flight, a companion book-length poem that weaves Middle Eastern exile myths and contemporary politics into a soaring, mythopoetic narrative. Hourani’s work edged out Le’s on the poetry shortlist, underscoring the strength of innovative long-form verse in this year’s awards.
Douglas Stewart Prize for Nonfiction: James Bradley’s Deep Water
Novelist, poet and critic James Bradley—elder statesman of Australian letters—won the $40,000 Douglas Stewart Prize for Nonfiction with Deep Water, an “ode to the ocean” that fuses memoir, marine science and environmental history. The judges described it as “a remarkable combination of great labour and literary skill that tells a story of eternity and rapid change, of vastness and immediacy, and it does so in a masterfully moving way.”
Children’s and Young-Adult Literature: Silver Linings and Anomaly
In the children’s category, Katrina Nannestad received $30,000 for Silver Linings, a historical novel set in 1950s rural Australia that sensitively explores themes of grief and resilience in the aftermath of World War II. Emma Lord, best known for her young-adult work, won $30,000 for Anomaly—a post-apocalyptic story of survival and found family that resonated with adolescent readers navigating uncertainty in a fracturing world.
Drama, Indigenous and Translation: Expanding Literary Horizons
Playwriting: Glenn Shea’s Three Magpies Perched in a Tree
Wathaurong and Ngarrindjeri playwright Glenn Shea won the drama award for Three Magpies Perched in a Tree, which follows a juvenile-justice worker grappling with Indigenous youth incarceration—a searing indictment of systemic inequities elevated by Shea’s keen sense of character and place.
Indigenous Writers’ Prize: When the World Was Soft
The Juluwarlu Group Aboriginal Corporation earned the Indigenous Writers’ Prize for When the World Was Soft, a graphic novel reimagining Yindjibarndi creation stories. The collaborative work blends evocative illustrations with ancestral narratives, offering readers an immersive entry point to First Nations cosmology.
Translation: The Trial of Anna Thalberg
Elizabeth Bryer secured recognition in the translation category for her rendering of Eduardo Sangarcía’s Spanish-language novel The Trial of Anna Thalberg into English—preserving the author’s lyrical voice and courtroom suspense while making the Spanish text accessible to an Anglophone audience.
New Writing and People’s Choice: Fresh Voices and Public Engagement
New Writing Prize: Jilya by Dr Tracy Westerman
Dr Tracy Westerman, Australia’s first Indigenous person to complete a PhD in clinical psychology, won the New Writing Prize for Jilya, her searing examination of how mental-health systems fail First Nations people. Blending personal narrative, case studies and policy critique, Jilya charts a path toward culturally safe care.
People’s Choice: The Lasting Harm by Lucia Osborne-Crowley
Journalist Lucia Osborne-Crowley’s The Lasting Harm—her investigation into Ghislaine Maxwell’s trafficking network—claimed the inaugural People’s Choice Award, determined by public vote. Osborne-Crowley’s meticulous reportage and survivor-centered storytelling struck a chord with readers, underscoring the enduring appetite for rigorous, empathetic journalism.
Significance and Looking Ahead
Celebrating Diversity and Literary Innovation
The 2025 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards highlight a vibrant literary ecosystem—where refugee narratives, experimental poetry, Indigenous creation stories and forensic nonfiction all claim center stage. Nam Le’s dual victory underscores the maturation of diasporic writing in Australia, as well as the willingness of judges and readers to embrace nontraditional forms.
In accepting the Book of the Year prize, Le remarked, “This moment affirms that a poem—36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem—can stand shoulder to shoulder with the novel and the memoir. It’s an invitation to all writers to keep pushing boundaries.”
Readers and booksellers alike will be watching to see how these award wins translate into broader national and international recognition. For Nam Le, the prize may well spark a new wave of translations, speaking tours and academic attention—fueling conversations on war, memory and identity that his work has pursued for decades.
As Australia’s oldest state-based literary awards continue to evolve, the 2025 winners demonstrate that the intersection of heritage and innovation—that space where tradition collides with experiment—is fertile ground for storytelling that resonates far beyond the page.
