Annual literary awards were inaugurated by the Western Australian Government in 1982 to honour and celebrate the literary achievements of Western Australian writers.
The categories included poetry, non-fiction, fiction, Western Australian history, children's book, YA fiction, scripts and digital narrative.
The Barnett government downgraded the awards from an annual event to a biennial one much to the disappointment of the WA arts sector.
There were four categories – the Western Australian Writer's Fellowship (valued at $60,000), the Premier's Prize for Writing for Children ($15,000), the Premier's Prize for an Emerging Writer ($15,000) and the Daisy Utemorrah Award for Indigenous Authors ($15,000 and publishing contract with Magabala Books).
[6] There have been calls for the awards to be restored to their previous levels as there are currently no categories for established poets and non-fiction writers.