Annette Higgs Wins the 2026 Australian Fiction Prize for The Music Teacher

Who won? Sydney writer Annette Higgs has won the 2026 Australian Fiction Prize for her unpublished novel The Music Teacher. HarperCollins Australia, which runs the prize, says the manuscript was picked from more than 300 entries this year. Higgs receives an advance of $15,000, and HarperCollins Australia will publish the book.

The prize is one of the few big open-door routes into Australian trade publishing. It is for an unpublished, book-length work of fiction and is open to any Australian writer, whatever their age or publishing history. No agent is needed.

The book

The setting is Gilgandra, a farming town in central-west New South Wales, in 1978. In the publisher's telling, the town hasn't had a scandal this big in years: a baby grand piano turns up on the back of a truck, in full view of everyone.

The piano is Olga's. She's a Polish refugee who has spent years living well in Sydney, and she arrives with her husband, Anthony, wanting friends, students and a clean start. Her European polish (and that piano) set her apart, and the town is split on what to make of her. HarperCollins is aiming the book at fans of The Correspondent, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine and The Secrets of the Huon Wren.

Roberta Ivers, the publisher who will take it on, admitted the judging was hard this year. In the end, she said, "we all fell head over heels" for it. Ivers singled out Olga, who "stole our hearts," and said the town comes together around her music.

Not her first prize

Higgs is from Tasmania. She's lived in Sydney, London and Italy, and earned a Doctor of Arts at the University of Sydney. Her short fiction has been published in Australia, the US, the UK and India, and she's been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

This isn't her first win of this kind. On a Bright Hillside in Paradise won the Penguin Literary Prize in 2022, and Penguin put it out in 2023. That makes two manuscript prizes with two big publishers, which shows these contests aren't only for first-timers.

How the shortlist looked

The prize named a nine-title longlist in late September, as reported at the time, with a shortlist due on October 1 and the winner on October 12. Higgs's manuscript was on the longlist alongside Black Hibiscus by Matcham Caine, The Callahan Sisters by Azra Berberovic, The Child Bride and the Spanish Dancer by Andrew Murphy, In the Shape of a Heart by Amanda Callahan, The Lyrebirds by Dani Ringrose, The Orchard Lines by Kelly McWilliam, Shadow City by May Ngo and A Thief Among Spies by Hannah Armitage.

What the prize has led to

HarperCollins points to its recent winners as proof the prize produces real books. Katherine Johnson's Every Wild Soul, the 2024 winner, was published in May 2026. The 2025 winner, Troy Henderson's River City, is scheduled for 2027.

That timeline matters for anyone thinking of entering. A win is not a fast track to shelves. Going by the last two winners, publication tends to follow about a year and a half or more after the announcement, with the usual editing and production in between. HarperCollins has not yet given a publication date for The Music Teacher.

Why it matters for authors

It is a door without a gatekeeper. Many big Australian houses take fiction mainly through agents. A prize like this lets unagented writers put a full manuscript in front of a major publisher's editors.

The odds are long but countable. Three hundred-plus entries for one winner is steep. A longlist or shortlist place can still be worth mentioning in a query letter.

Read the contract terms before you enter. Manuscript prizes come with a publishing deal attached, so the rules are part of the offer. HarperCollins publishes terms and conditions and an FAQ on the prize page; read them before you submit.

Next round. HarperCollins says entries for the 2027 Australian Fiction Prize open in early 2027.

Sources

• HarperCollins Australia: The Australian Fiction Prize (winner announcement, October 2026)
• Shelf Awareness: Awards: Australian Fiction Longlist (September 28, 2026)