“Lenora Thaker wins $30,000 Queensland literary award for debut novel on Cairns-Malay Town” — what this page in the network covers. Meriam and Wagedagam author Lenora Thaker has won the $30,000 Queensland premier’s award for a work of state significance at the Queensland literary awards for her debut novel, The Pearl of Tagai Town. The historical novel draws on her family’s history in Cairns-Malay Town, an unmapped shantytown that existed from the late 1800s to the late 1950s, where Indigenous Australians, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Malaysian and Sri Lankan residents lived segregated from the white population.
Judges praised the book as “stunning” and “unambiguously and distinctively Queensland,” highlighting its exploration of a largely forgotten chapter of the state’s multicultural past. The award brings national attention to a community whose stories have often been overlooked, and Thaker’s win underscores the growing recognition of diverse voices in Australian literature. This listing links straight to the original page, where the content is available in full.