2025 Jewish Writer Awards nominees announced
The shortlists have been announced for the 2025 Shalom Collective Australian Jewish Writer Awards, recognising outstanding books published in 2024 across a range of genres and age categories.
Now in its second year, the Leslie and Sophie Caplan Award for Jewish Non-Fiction ($10,000) honours works of significant relevance to the Jewish experience. This year’s shortlist spans memoir, investigative history, academic studies, and illustrated works:
- How to Knit a Human: A Memoir – Anna Jacobson
- Fascists in Exile – Jayne Persian
Nominees for the Leslie and Sophie Caplan Award for Jewish Non-Fiction Book
- Squat – John Safran
- Noble Fragments – Michael Visontay
- Treasures of Old Jewish Sydney – Jana Vytrhlik
The Jewish Independent Young Jewish Writers Award ($5,000), open to authors aged 18–40, celebrates fiction, non-fiction, and poetry on Jewish subjects. The 2025 shortlist includes:
- Ellie’s Table: Food from Memory and Food from Home – Ellie Bouhadana
- In Bad Faith – Dassi Erlich with Ellen Whinnett
- How to Knit a Human: A Memoir – Anna Jacobson
The inaugural Szymon (Simon) Klitenik Award for Jewish Fiction ($5,000) recognises a novel or short story collection. The shortlist features contemporary, historical, fable, and romantic fiction:
- The Girl with the Violin – Shelley Davidow
- The Whale’s Last Song – Joanne Fedler
- The Star on the Grave – Linda Margolin Royal
- All the Beautiful Things You Love – Jonathan Seidler
Two further awards will debut in 2025, with winners to be announced on 24 August:
- The Edith Hausmann Award for Jewish Playwrights ($10,000) for an unproduced script by a writer aged 18–45.
- The Rosalind Sharbanee Meyer Award for Young Jewish Storytellers, presented with the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, for short stories and poetry by authors aged 18–35, offering prizes totalling $600.
The awards are part of Shalom Collective’s commitment to celebrating Jewish writing and culture. Director of the Sydney Jewish Writers Festival, Anna Stern, encouraged readers to explore the shortlisted works and attend upcoming events.
In 2024, Michael Gawenda won the Leslie and Sophie Caplan Award for My Life as a Jew, while poet and artist Anna Jacobson took out the Jewish Independent Young Jewish Writers Award for Anxious in a Sweet Store. This year’s expanded program marks the most diverse field yet, with new categories recognising fiction, playwriting, and emerging storytellers.
Winners will be revealed at the sold-out awards ceremony on 24 August. A waitlist is available at https://www.shalomcollective.com.au/whats-on/australian-jewish-writer-awards-ceremony.
