Gillian Mears won the fiction award for her novel Foal’s Bread while the award for poetry went to Luke Davies for Interferon Psalms.
The young adult fiction category was won by Robert Newton for When We Were Two and the children’s fiction award went to author Frances Watts and illustrator Judy Watson for Goodnight, Mice!
Mark McKenna won the non-fiction award for his book An Eye for Eternity: The Life of Manning Clark and the Prize for Australian History was awarded to Bill Gammage for The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia.
Now in its fifth year, the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards recognise and reward excellence in Australian literature and history.
In 2012 the winner of each category was awarded $80,000 and each shortlisted author received $5000.
For more information visit www.arts.gov.au/pmliteraryawards