The John Marsden Prize for Writing for Young Adults will be awarded from next year, honouring the literary legend who passed away in December.

The prize will be worth $25,000 and the winner will also go into the running for the Victorian Prize for Literature, which includes a further $100,000 in prize money.

Victorian Minister for Creative Industries, Colin Brooks, said Marsden’s work had inspired a love of reading and writing in generations of young people in Australia and around the world. 

“His work is so captivating that it continues to entice young people to pick up his books, and not put them down,” Brooks said.

“Through the John Marsden Prize for Writing for Young Adults we honour his extraordinary legacy, and celebrate the life-changing impact books can have on young people.”

Marsden’s family said they were thrilled that he has been honoured by having the important award named after him.

“John was a pioneer in creating literature that was accessible and meaningful to young adults,” a family spokesperson relayed in a statement.

“It was his lifelong passion, and we look forward with excitement to seeing this prize awarded, thereby continuing John’s great legacy.”

Marsden started his career as a teacher before his first book, So Much to Tell You, was published in 1987 and went on to become an international bestseller, winning multiple awards including a Victorian Premier’s Literary Award in 1988.

The passionate educator went on to create one of the most successful Australian book series for young adults to date, the seven-book Tomorrow series.

Beginning with Tomorrow, When the War Began in 1993, the series won several awards in Australia and garnered international acclaim before spurring a second wildly successful book series, The Ellie Chronicles.

Over the course of his writing career, Marsden published more than 40 books.

He was also a committed educator, teaching at schools in NSW and Victoria.

In 2006, he established the alternative Candlebark School in the Macedon Ranges and ten years later he opened an arts-focused secondary school in the region, Alice Miller School.

Marsden was driven to inspire young people to write and visited thousands of schools, delivering talks and workshops. He was also the patron of youth literary organisation Express Media.

Speaking to EducationHQ’s Sarah Duggan in October, Marsden shared his love of taking students outside of the classroom during his English lessons, to observe birds in their habitat.

“I’m doing stuff like that all the time, because I want them to regain what they had as infants; where they were watching the world with fresh eyes, and they were just taking it all in with open eyes, sort of literally and figuratively,” he said.

Never afraid to speak his mind, Marsden said he’d seen too many English classrooms where children were taught that language rules and conventions are to be adhered to at all times.

This is ultimately damaging, he suggested, and led to cumbersome writing that strays from students’ authentic voice.

“One of the conventions in primary school … is that children are taught to use adjectives, ‘describing words’ they used to be called, and adverbs.

“And that’s really bad advice, because adverbs in particular could almost be abolished, and you’d have better writing as a result.

“…it’s very rarely that you need to use an adverb, and they’re often detrimental to the writing, because they tell rather than show.”

 ’An economy’ of adjectives, he suggested, was something students should in fact aim for.

CEO of The Wheeler Centre, Erin Vincent, said Marsden’s impact on young adult literature is immeasurable, inspiring creativity and igniting a love of reading among young audiences around the world.

“Only someone with such deep respect for young people could create such beloved characters that will live on in our national memory.

“The Wheeler Centre is thrilled to honour John Marsden as part of the 2026 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, celebrating the very best of Australian writers.”

For more on the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, including a list of the 2025 winners, click here.