Will Kostakis Wins Prime Minister’s Literary Award With Queer YA Novel

Queer author Will Kostakis has taken out the top prize for young adult literature at the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards.

The popular author won the award for his recent book We Could Be Something.

Along with the title he’s also walked away with $80,000 for his efforts.

Will Kostakis and We Could Be Something

Since his debut as an author Will Kostakis has had his share of success and failures.

With over seven published books under his belt he continues to tell compelling and dynamic stories, particularly in the queer young adult sector.

This week he was recognised for his most recent work, We Could Be Something.

The powerful intergenerational story has been awarded the young adult literature award at the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, an honour that comes with an $80,000 prize to boot.

Kostakis has previously been nominated for the awards and was this year celebrated as one of the many winners sharing in over $600,000 in prize money.

Judges praised the quality of his work as a novelist when celebrating his achievement.

“Kostakis writes with authenticity and insight about a teen novelist having his ego and creative spirit crushed when his first novel falters” they said.

“The novel’s bittersweet conclusion avoids cliche and leaves the reader with something far more complex, realistic and lingering than a tidy ending.”

“Kostakis balances the reader’s desire for satisfaction with this story’s demand for authenticity with enviable skill. This is a powerful novel with universal appeal, imbued with heart and wit, told with control and maturity.”

We Could Be Something: Memoir meets fiction

We Could Be Something follows the story of Greek-Australian Harvey who has travelled to live with and work for his yiayia amidst the fall out of the divorce of his fathers.

Simultaneously the story also follows the life of his father Sotiris as a young aspiring author struggling with the limited success of his first book as he navigates new romance.

In some aspects the story mirrors his life as writer, with the book eventually intended as memoir before he pivoted to more of a work of fiction.

“I took inspiration from my life – my small but potent Greek family, my experiences as a published author as a teenager, growing up in a café my mother ran – and from that a fictional story bloomed” he said in an interview with Neos Kosmos.

“This book actually started as a series of interconnected memoir pieces, because I thought, “Okay, I’m going to get all the auto-fiction out of me. I’m just going to do all the memoir, and then I can write something completely fictional” he told Arts Hub.

“And then, one, publishers were like, “No, we don’t want that from you,” and two, I always felt that urge to start fictionalising things and turning them into a really big story” he said.

The story also touches on his feelings of failure following the release of his first book at just nineteen years old and struggles that followed.

“I always wanted to take that experience of writing a first book and things not quite going to plan and writing about it – write about how ridiculous it felt to be a teenager writing for teenagers and having to tour and things like that. And the main thing is, I’m really glad that I failed.”

Last night was made all the more special because I got to share it with my A&U stablemates @twitofalili and @GLonesborough. pic.twitter.com/1MTkOxYolL

— ✨ Will Kostakis ✨ (@willkostakis) September 13, 2024