Australian Christian Book of the Year Winner Announced


Sparklit’s annual Australian Christian Book of the Year Award was announced on Thursday August 31 in Melbourne. Biblical Critical Theory written by Christopher Watkin and published by Zondervan Academic was declared the winner, and lifts up the Bible as a prism through which to understand and interpret contemporary Western culture.

The 2023 shortlist covered a broad range of topics including technology, government, leadership, the arts, childbirth, compassion, and suffering.

The shortlist of ten titles is as follows:

The Covers of the 10 Finalists for 2023

This year’s judging panel included Greg Clarke, author and former CEO of Bible Society Australia and a winner of Australian Book of the Year in 2014; Dr Meredith Lake, writer and broadcaster, host of Soul Search on ABC Radio National, and Catherine Place, a teacher, writer and tutor in Catholic education circles.

You can read judges’ comments for all shortlisted and winning works at sparklit.org/awards

Caleb MacLaren from Victoria won the 2023 Australian Christian Teen Writer Award. His screenplay The Journey uses the traumatic background of an alien apocalypse to showcase the relational strength of its adolescent protagonists.

Congratulations to the winners and all the shortlisted writers.

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