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 2021 winner of the High Country Indie Book Award was The Serpent Rising by Mary Garden. Runner up was Hearing Maud by Jessica White.
2022 Finalists
Banjawarn, by Josh Kemp
Missing, by Tom Patterson
A Room Made of Leaves, by Kate Grenville
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
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
High Country Writers Festival 