Text authors win at the 2023 Aurealis Awards.

James Islington’s The Will of the Many has picked up the award for 2023’s Best Fantasy Novel, in Australia’s Aurealis Awards for speculative fiction. The Will of the Many, published in mid-2023, is the first in the Hierarchy series. It has already received rapturous praise including from bestselling fantasy author Lynette Noni. The second instalment, The Strength of the Few, will be released in 2025. James Islington’s previous series, the Licanius Trilogy, has sold more than a million copies worldwide.

John Morrissey’s debut story collection Firelight has received the 2023 Aurealis Award for Best Collection. Acquired through the Boundless Mentorship between Text Publishing and Writing NSW, Firelight has been listed for multiple awards. The debut has been shortlisted for the 2024 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction, and for both the Indigenous Writers’ Prize and the UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing in the 2024 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. John Morrissey has also been recognised as one of The Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelists.  

Congratulations to James and John on their awards.