WINNER! In October 2026 Annette was awarded the Australian Fiction Prize 2026 for her unpublished manuscript The Music Teacher, which will be published by Harper Collins. From the Prize announcement:
“HarperCollins is thrilled to announce that Annette Higgs has won the Australian Fiction Prize 2026 for her unpublished manuscript The Music Teacher.
The Music Teacher is a sparkling, heartwarming and moving story set in country New South Wales, and judged the winner from over 300 manuscripts submitted this year. It will appeal to readers who love The Correspondent, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and The Secrets of the Huon Wren.
In dusty Gilgandra, 1978, the biggest scandal in years is the arrival of a baby grand piano, delivered on a truck for all to see. Olga, a Polish refugee who has lived a cosmopolitan, stylish life in Sydney has arrived with her husband Anthony, full of hope for new friends, new students and a fresh start. But her European sensibilities, her panache – and piano – mark her as different, and not everyone in town quite understands her.
Publisher Roberta Ivers said, ‘The range of manuscripts in this year’s prize was of such a high quality that it made our job so much harder, but we all fell head over heels for Annette Higgs’s The Music Teacher. I'm thrilled to be publishing this big-hearted, uplifting story about community and how we can change each other’s lives. The irrepressible Olga stole our hearts as she navigates country Gilgandra and brings the town together with music – and discovers support and community when she needs it the most. Annette Higgs has written a joyful novel, brimming with delicious wit, humour and emotion, and I know readers will fall in love with it as much as we have.’”
