Dr André Dao awarded Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction

Dr André Dao of Melbourne Law School has won this year’s Prime Ministers Literary Award for Fiction for his debut novel Anam – a story of family, false imprisonment and migration.

Dr Dao,  a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Laureate Program in Global Corporations and International Law at Melbourne Law School, said: “It is a huge honour to receive the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for my debut novel – not least because it has been such an incredible year for Australian fiction.”

“I am delighted that Anam is being recognised alongside novels by Alexis Wright, Melissa Lucashenko and Charlotte Wood, to name a few.”

Anam used the story of Dr Dao’s own family, with a version of himself as a character who learned of his family’s history and his grandfather’s imprisonment in communist Vietnam. In their comments, judges of the literary prize described Anam as "an intimate examination of the migrant experience and its vulnerabilities, where the idea of one's country remains suffused with uncertainty and ambiguity.”

Dr Dao is the co-founder of oral-history project Beyond the Wire that highlights stories of people detained by the Australian Government after seeking asylum. His podcast recorded as part of that project, The Messenger, built from voice notes of a Sudanese man detained on Manus Island, has won an Australian Human Rights Commission Media Award and a Walkley Award, among others.

His legal research has focused on international law, human rights and digital data. He said his research and his storytelling often entwined.

“I think my work as a novelist and as a legal researcher have actually been very complementary – questions about justice, evidence and how law remembers and forgets run throughout Anam, and in my legal scholarship I am always interested in the role that narratives and imaginaries play in law’s operations,” he said.

The Prime Minister’s Literary Awards recognise the literary talents of established and emerging Australian writers, illustrators, poets, and historians and includes an $80,000 prize for each categorized winner.

“Congratulations to this year’s winners for showcasing the diversity of Australian voices and sharing our unique stories with the world.” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

Anam also won the 2021 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript and was a 2024 Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist.