By arts editor Helen Musa

Canberra region authors Jackie French and Clare Hallifax have each received $5000 as shortlisted authors in the 2026 ARA Historical Novel Prize, announced in Sydney on Thursday.

French, who has lived near Braidwood for more than 40 years, was recognised for Cleopatra: The Girl Who Would Be King in the adult category, while Hallifax’s A House Divided was shortlisted in the Children and Young Adult category.

Hallifax, a former member of the Canberra Parliamentary Press Gallery, draws on the capital’s political history in a novel set against the 1975 dismissal of the Whitlam government, centring on a Canberra family.

The adult category was won by Bernice Barry for The Names of a Hare, while Meg Caddy took the Children and Young Adult prize for A Flash in the Dust, a story inspired by Australian histories of queer courage and resilience.

Wayne Marshall won the Readers’ Choice Award for Henry Goes Bush.

The ARA Historical Novel Prize, presented by the Historical Novel Society Australasia, has a total prize pool of $155,000. The adult category winner receives $100,000 and the Children and Young Adult winner $30,000, with the remaining shortlisted authors in each category receiving $5000 each.

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