Melissa Lucashenko, Goorie (Aboriginal) author of Bundjalung and European heritage, has been awarded the $30,000 Queensland Premier’s Award for a work of State Significance for her novel Edenglassie. The historical work, set in Brisbane in two time periods — including the 1840s and 1850s when First Nations people outnumbered colonists and Yuggera leader Dundalli was hung in front of the Brisbane Gaol — questions colonial myths and reimagines Australia’s future. Judges of the literary award have praised Edenglassie as a work that ‘elevates our understanding of Queensland’s soul’.

This is the second time that Lucashenko has received this honour, with her sixth novel, Too Much Lip, winning both the 2019 Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Queensland Premier’s Award for a work of State Significance. She is also a Walkley Award winner for her non-fiction writing and is a founding member of non-profit organisation Sisters Inside which advocates for the human rights of women and girls in prison, among which First Nations women and girls are significantly over-represented.

Lucashenko will be delivering the Closing Address at Representations of Meanjin and Moreton Bay 1824-2024: A Bicentennial Symposium, hosted by Griffith University and the Harry Gentle Resource Centre at South Bank on 11-12 September 2024.

To view the Symposium program, click here.