The winners of the 2018 Indie Book Awards have been announced, with Jessica Townsend’s Nevermoor becoming the first children’s book to take out the main prize in the Indies’ ten year history.
The awards recognise the important role indie booksellers and bookstores have in the success of homegrown authors, by engaging with customers, recommending works outside the mainstream, and enthusiastically sharing their love of books. Nominated by independent booksellers, these books represent the best in new Australian literature, with past winners including Tim Winton, M.L. Stedman and Craig Silvey.
Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow topped the Children’s category, and was voted overall winner by the judging panel. Galina Marinov, National Group Manager of award organisers Leading Edge Books said:
We are absolutely thrilled to have Jessica Townsend and Nevermoor winning the Indie Book Awards 2018 Book of the Year! From the very beginning we knew that we had a very special book on our hands and a gift to booksellers and readers alike – a brilliant and pacey plot, memorable characters and a wondrous world, to keep readers of all ages engaged and eager for the next installment in the series. We are tremendously excited to have the first overall winner coming from the Children’s Category, in this 10th year of the Indie Book Awards!
Other category winners included:
Fiction: The Choke by Sofie Laguna
Non-fiction: Saga Land by Richard Fidler & Kári Gíslason
Debut fiction: Wimmera by Mark Brandi
Illustrated non-fiction: Native: Art & Design with Australian Plants by Kate Herd & Jela Ivankovic-Waters
Young adult: Wilder Country by Mark Smith
For more information on the awards and the winning books, check out the Indie Book Awards website.
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