PM's book awards shortlist released

Award-winning authors and newcomers are vying for the Prime Minister's Literary Awards with their tales of the fantastic, the nation's history and grammar.

The 2016 shortlist, unveiled on Monday, features stories and poetry, books about history and key characters in Australian life, and stories that promise to engage young readers chosen from 425 entries.

The winning author in each category will get $80,000 and the others shortlisted will get $5000.

FICTION

* Forever Young - Steven Carroll

* The Life of Houses - Lisa Gorton

* The World Repair Video Game - David Ireland

* Quicksand - Steve Toltz

* The Natural Way of Things - Charlotte Wood

POETRY

* Net Needle - Robert Adamson

* Cocky's Joy - Michael Farrell

* The Hazards - Sarah Holland-Batt

* Waiting for the Past - Les Murray

* The Ladder- Simon West

PRIZE FOR AUSTRALIAN HISTORY

* The Story of Australia's People: The Rise and Fall of Ancient Australia - Geoffrey Blainey

* Let My People Go: The untold story of Australia and the Soviet Jews 1959-89 - Sam Lipski and Suzanne D Rutland

* Red Professor: The Cold War Life of Fred Rose - Peter Monteath and Valerie Munt

* Ned Kelly: A Lawless Life - Doug Morrissey

* The War with Germany: Volume III--The Centenary History of Australia and the Great War - Robert Stevenson

NON-FICTION

* Tom Roberts and the Art of Portraiture - Julie Cotter

* On Stalin's Team: The Years of Living Dangerously in Soviet Politics - Sheila Fitzpatrick

* Thea Astley: Inventing her own Weather - Karen Lamb

* Second Half First - Drusilla Modjeska

* Island Home - Tim Winton

CHILDREN'S FICTION

* Adelaide's Secret World - Elise Hurst

* Sister Heart - Sally Morgan

* Perfect - Danny Parker and Freya Blackwood

* The Greatest Gatsby: A visual book of grammar, Tohby Riddle

* Mr Huff - Anna Walker

YOUNG ADULT FICTION

* Becoming Kirrali Lewis - Jane Harrison

* Illuminae: The Illuminae Files_01 - Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

* A Single Stone - Meg McKinlay

* In Between Days - Vikki Wakefield

* Green Valentine - Lili Wilkinson