The MUD LITERARY PRIZE
Since 2018, MUD has sponsored the MUD Literary Prize (MLP), recognising the best first literary novel by an Australian author with a cash prize and special presentation ceremony as part of Adelaide Writers' Week. It now stands as one of the most important literary awards for new writers in the country. The philosophy behind the prize is an acknowledgement that while literary fiction plays a vital role in the cultural life of Australia, and internationally, it rarely offers writers a living wage. The prize acknowledges that most writers need funds to make it possible to write. The prize is one that the writer may spend as they see fit – to live, to travel, to explore and be inspired by new ideas.
In early 2023 the MUD committee was delighted to announce that the prize would double to a monetary value of $10,000 to the winning entry made possible by a donation from the Nunn Dimos Foundation. Ongoing support like this will see the MLP become a permanent and significant prize for debut Australian writers. Members of the MUD Literary judging panel for the 2026 prize are; Andrew Saies (chair), Louise Adler, Mandy Thomas, Noel Grieve, David Sly, Beejay Silcox and Winnie Peltz.
We are committed to ensuring the security of this Prize in perpetuity.
We have been thrilled at the response of a number of our members to meet the challenge to hit the target figure for the fund to achieve earlier this year.
A big thank you and congratulations to our generous members and the Nunn Dimos foundation for jumping in again.
Prizewinners to Date
2026 Dominic Amerena for 'I Want Everything'
At once a literary page-turner and a cutting industry satire, I Want Everything follows an unnamed young writer who inserts himself into the orbit of reclusive literary icon, fabricating not just a narrative but an identity to secure his place in her legend. Amerena’s deft plotting and crisp prose blur the line between investigator and impostor, exposing the machinery of literary fame and the uneasy performance of “authenticity.” Sly nods to Australian literary history add an extra layer of pleasure for keen-eyed readers.
2025 Cameron Stewart for "Why Do Horses Run"
After three years of trudging along back roads this contemporary swagman arrives in a valley where he meets a recently widowed woman who lets him live in a shed on her property. We gradually discover why he wanders the country not wanting to be found. Over time the woman shares her own pain with him as they awkwardly befriend each other. This stark searing portrait of grief, resilience and the generosity of strangers takes place in a beautifully portrayed landscape where a tortured character slowly crawls back to life.
2024 Kylie Needham for ‘Girl in a Pink Dress"
An intriguing exploration of the sexual politics of the art world, this is a searing account of the interplay between an artist and his source of inspiration. It is also about the quiet fury that arises when sacrificing one's own talent for another's.
2022 Diana Reid for ‘Love and Virtue’
Diana Reid, an exciting new voice in Australian literature, provides us with a brave and daring examination of sexual assault, misogyny, power struggles and the rights of individuals, told through a bright young woman’s turbulent first year on a university campus.
2023 Tracey Lien for ‘All That’s Left Unsaid’
Compassionate and quick-witted, this literary thriller follows a Vietnamese-Australian woman’s investigation of her younger brother’s murder unravelling the intergenerational trauma inherited through the migrant experience. Revealing the layered threads of family, friendship and community this is a gripping homicide mystery.
2021 Pip Williams for ‘Dictionary of Lost Words’
This wonderful story interweaves a tale of female empowerment in the early 1900s with the creation of an alternative dictionary capturing women's terms that the official Oxford English Dictionary had rejected. The novel celebrates the honoring of words and of the stories hidden beneath the official ones.
2020 Sienna Brown for ‘Master of My Fate’
This commanding novel describes the life of a man, William Buchanan, born into slavery on a plantation in Jamaica and transported to NSW in 1835 as a convict. It is a powerful story of a man risking everything for freedom against a backdrop of slavery and its brutality, interweaving the historical reality of convict labour with the vivid life of an individual.
2019 Trent Dalton for ‘Boy Swallows Universe’
Set in the world of drug-dealing criminals this story is written from the perspective of 12 year old Eli Bell who lives in a troubled family in suburban Brisbane. With a lyrical style Dalton presents the almost magical events surrounding the difficulties of Eli’s life and adventures with charm and delight.
2018 Sarah Schmidt for ‘See What I Have Done’
The powerful retelling of the family events and dramas that led to the famous Borden trial in the US in 1892 in which a woman was accused, and then found innocent, of murdering her father and her step-mother with an axe. In prose which is both alluring and evocative this novel unravels the story of Lizzie and the complex relationships within her dysfunctional family.