Congratulations to Marly Wells and Linda Wells on winning the Ethel Turner Prize for Young People's Literature at the 2026 NSW Literary Awards for their book, Desert Tracks.

The Ethel Turner Prize ($30,000) is offered for a work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry written for young people of secondary school level.

The judges said of Desert Tracks:

Millie becomes absorbed in a story set over a century ago in her hometown of Alice Springs. The story acts as a springboard for the imagination in the way that good stories do — dissolving boundaries, expanding experience, seeding new insights. But we soon discover that this story contains an even more transcendent power. As Millie reads, she is swept away from her ordinary life into the world she is reading about. And it’s here that she finds the inhabitants of her familiar yet different land. 

The nature of this meeting, and the discovery and depth of Millie’s relationships are beautifully handled — tender, earthy, spiritually nourishing. The shy, open natures of the young people from different generations, and the way they share their experiences, hopes and fears is achingly moving. Desert Tracks tells the truth we need to know as Australian people. It’s told from the inside, hearts and history coming alive as the story unfolds inside us.

Desert Tracks was a stand-out for its understated ambition and elegant storytelling. The panel was excited by the genre-bending nature of its storytelling, which unapologetically blends fantasy, history and time travel as well as the device of ‘a book within a book’. The resulting narrative is rich and engaging, accessible and instructive. The gift of this book is the gentle but powerful way that readers are invited on the protagonist’s journey to a knowing that changes the way they see the world.

Desert Tracks won the 2023 Daisy Utemorrah Award, a national award that recognises excellence and seeks to grow Australian Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander writing for younger readers. The award is named in honour of the late Daisy Utemorrah, who was an elder of the Wunambal people from the Mitchell Plateau area in the far north Kimberley, and one of the founders of Magabala Books. Utemorrah was an award-winning poet, author, community leader and passionate educator.

Congratulations again to Marly and Linda on this win!