Plastic Budgie by Olivia De Zilva has won the 2026 Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction. She receives A$5,000 (about US$3,500).
Organizers described the book this way: "This coming-of-age novel about growing up as a child of Asian immigrants in parochial Adelaide is autofiction at its absolute best--a joyous, delightful ride."
Chair of judges Gene Pinter called Plastic Budgie a "work of exquisite autofiction in the vein of Helen Garner's Monkey Grip and Michelle de Kretser's Theory & Practice. [It's] whip-smart, funny like a hit nerve, and devastating in its emotional precision."