The Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelists award was created in 1997 by the newspaper's literary editor, Susan Wyndham and is made annually.
The awards recognise emerging writing talent, and are made to writers who are aged 35 years or younger when their book is first published.
[1] The award criteria were relaxed in 2009 to allow the inclusion of short story collections.
[2] That year, Nam Le won the award with his short story collection, The Boat.
The judges change regularly, and the number of writers named as "Best Young Australian Novelist" each year varies.