Western Australian author, Emily Tsokos Purtill has won the Emerging Writer award in the 2025 WA Premier's Book Awards for her debut novel Matia.
The prize, worth $15,000, is awarded to the best book by an emerging Western Australian author. Emily was shortlisted alongside Shaeden Berry (Down the Rabbit Hole), Khin Myint (Fragile Creatures: A Memoir), Katherine Allum (The Skeleton House), and fellow UWA Publishing author Daniel Juckes (The Moment of the Essay).
The 5 authors shortlisted for the Emerging Writer award: Katherine Allum, Khin Myint, Shaeden Berry, Daniel Juckes, and Emily Tsokos Purtill. Credit SoCo Studios photography.
The winners of the 2025 Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards were announced on Friday 29 August at the State Library of Western Australia, sharing a prize pool of $120,000. The annual awards, administered and hosted by the State Library, honour the creativity and achievements of authors, illustrators and publishers who tell the story of Western Australia. 2025 saw an expansion and shakeup of the awards with dedicated categories for Children, Young Adult, Poetry, Fiction, Non-Fiction and an Emerging Writer award, along with prizes for Book of the Year and the Daisy Utemorrah Award. Find out more about the awards.
The judges commented the following about Emily's debut novel: "Compellingly interwoven storylines traverse a matriarchal line spanning different generations, cultures, and places. Matia expertly explores and evokes Greek migrant culture and experience through a beautiful use language and imagery. The interweaving of the characters is masterfully done, propelling the storyline with an elegant air of mystery and intrigue."
Congratulations Emily!!
