​BOOK NOMINATIONS
FOR THE 2025 AWARD
ARE NOW CLOSED!
​

Thank you to everyone who has nominated
​a book for the 2025 awards. 

The DANZ Criteria
​

​The DANZ Award seeks diverse children’s books.

This means a work of children's fiction published in book form which pushes boundaries, challenges stereotypes, and celebrates diverse and marginalised people and communities.
​
Diversity can include disability, culture, class, LGBTQI, race, and religion.

The diversity portrayed in the book and under which the book is nominated must be relevant, obvious, and important to the story but the story itself must be more than the diversity portrayed.

Authors and/or illustrators are not required to identify as "diverse" themselves; however, the submitted work must be sensitively and authentically written without using offensive, inaccurate, harmful, and insensitive tropes and representation. The judging process will be thorough and critical in this regard.

The award looks for something new, for inclusivity, and mostly for the celebration of minority people and voices.

The book must be published in Australia and/or Aotearoa New Zealand.

The author and illustrator must be an Australian or New Zealand citizen or permanent resident. 

The illustrator may nominate a book with the author's permission.

The book must have an ISBN.

The book must have been published in 2022, 2023 or 2024.

The book must be either a young adult novel, a children's non-fiction book, a graphic novel, a work of poetry, or other (another category that does not fit into any of the above).

Nominations closed on the 26th of August 2024.

​

Our Book Nomination Panel is currently working through the 100s of nominations received. 

Watch this space for updates! 

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