EVERY YEAR FROM 2019-2022, readers of the High Country Book Club, based at The Makers Shed, voted 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 selected fiction and non-fiction titles published by independent publishing presses, or independently-published authors.

The winner was announced during the annual High Country Writers Festival, with the presentation of an annual trophy, handmade by resident silversmith at The Makers Shed, Richard Moon.

2022 Finalists

Banjawarn, by Josh Kemp

Missing, by Tom Patterson (equal runner up)

A Room Made of Leaves, by Kate Grenville (equal runner up)

Growing Up in Country Australia, edited by Rick Morton

Unbecoming, by Joanne Fedler

Don’t Call Us Carnies, by Norma Brophy

The Beach Caves, by Trevor Shearston

Barefoot in the Bindis, by Angela Wales

After Story, by Larissa Behrendt (winner)

Night Train to Varanasi, by Sean Doyle

The Breaking, by Irma Gold

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 (runner up)

Rural Dreams, by Margaret Hickey

The Serpent Rising, by Mary Garden (winner)

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