2010 Shortlist
Children's fiction
- Cicada Summer by Kate Constable
- The Terrible Plop by Ursula Dubosarsky and illustrator Andrew Joyner
- Just Macbeth by Andy Griffiths and illustrator Terry Denton
- Mr Chicken goes to Paris by Leigh Hobbs
- Running with the Horses by Alison Lester
- Star Jumps by Lorraine Marwood
- Mannie and the Long Brave Day by Martine Murray and illustrator Sally Rippin
- Tensy Farlow and the Home for Mislaid Children by Jen Storer
- Harry and Hopper by Margaret Wild and illustrator Freya Blackwood
Fiction
- Summertime by J. M. Coetzee
- The Book of Emmett by Deborah Forster
- The Lakewoman by Alan Gould
- Dog Boy by Eva Hornung
- Ransom by David Malouf
- Lovesong by Alex Miller
- As the Earth turns Silver by Alison Wong
Non-fiction
- The Water Dreamers: The Remarkable History of Our Dry Continent by Michael Cathcart
- Strange Places: A Memoir of Mental Illness by Will Elliott
- The Colony: A History of Early Sydney by Grace Karskens
- The Life and Death of Democracy by John Keane
- The Blue Plateau: A Landscape Memoir by Mark Tredinnick
- The Ghost at the Wedding by Shirley Walker
Young adult fiction
