EVERY YEAR THE readers of the High Country Book Club, based at The Makers Shed, vote on an award recognising the best book from a selection of finalists, read and discussed at a meeting on the third Saturday of every month. The club selects fiction and non-fiction titles published by independent publishing presses, or independently-published authors.

The winner is announced during the festival, with the presentation of an annual trophy, handmade by resident silversmith at The Makers Shed, Richard Moon.

To read more about our rationale, check out this article by Michael Burge.

The 2020 winner of the High Country Indie Book Award was You Had Me At Hola by Leigh Robshaw. Runner-up was The House of Youssef by Yumna Kassab. The 2019 winner was Lady Bird & The Fox by Kim Kelly.

2021 Finalists

The Full Mandy, by Mandy Nolan

Small Mercies, by Richard Anderson

Red Herrings for Breakfast, by Annabet Ousback

Too Much Lip, by Michelle Lucashenko

Hearing Maud, by Jessica White

Rural Dreams, by Margaret Hickey

The Serpent Rising, by Mary Garden

Her Last Words, by Kim Kelly

Surviving New England, by Callum Clayton-Dixon

2020 Finalists

Untethered, by Hayley Katzen

Sundowner of the Skies, by Mary Garden

The House of Youssef, by Yumna Kassab (runner up)

You Had Me at Hola, by Leigh Robshaw (winner)

Walking, by Kim Kelly

Hide, by S. J. Morgan

The Worst Country in the World, by Patsy Trench

Four Hot Chips, by Jo-Ann Capp

2019 Finalists

The Moor, by Sam Haysom

Just a Mum, by Shelley Argent

Echo Hall, by Virginia Moffatt

The House by the Marsh, by William Blyghton

Feral Tracks, by Euan Mitchell

Infants of the Brush, by A. M. Watson

Nobody Told Me My Legs Don’t Work, by Travis C. Yates

Lady Bird & The Fox, by Kim Kelly (winner)

Nothing But Blue, by Diane Meyer Lowman

A Drop in the Ocean, by Jenni Ogden

A Country to be Reckoned With, by Patsy Trench