Alexis Wright won the 2024 Voss Literary Prize, which is judged by the Australian University Heads of English and honors the best novel from the previous year, for Praiseworthy, published in the U.S. by New Directions. The book has also won the Miles Franklin Award, the Stella Prize, and the James Tait Black Prize.
The judging panel described Praiseworthy as "a work for the ages, a capacious Aboriginal epic based in the Queensland Gulf Country.... In asserting the healing possibilities of story, Wright eviscerates its opposite, that particular Canberra narrative, amplified by social media, about the abuse of alcohol and children in Aboriginal communities. This material, which describes the breakdown of Aboriginal culture and society, is so ubiquitous that the residents of the tiny town of Praiseworthy are sucked in by it: they want to trade their integrity for the trinkets of white lifestyle and minor positions of authority....
"Much has been written about Praiseworthy and the awards it has garnered for its poetic and expansive language, its exceptional mastery of craft and astonishing emotional range. Wright has gifted her readers a total life-world, a fantastical imaginary that challenges western knowledge, logic and expectations, enriches Australian literature, and gives sovereignty to Indigenous voices."