Winners of the 2025 Age Book of the Year Awards were named at the opening night of the recent Melbourne Writers Festival. The winning authors received A$10,000 (about US$6,370) each.
Vortex by Rodney Hall won the Age Book of the Year award for fiction. The fiction judges described the book as a late-career marvel "that sticks with you... often surprisingly funny and sad all at once.... At a time when many will feel caught up in the vortex of global events, this novel feels both particular to its time and place and yet universal."
Lech Blaine's memoir Australian Gospel won the Age Book of the Year nonfiction award. Calling the book "an enriching experience," the judges said Blaine is "an exceptionally gifted storyteller, alive to all the nuances of character and the circumstances that shape the lives of people."