The 2025 ACT Book of the Year was awarded to Warra Warra Wai by Darren Rix and Craig Cormick, recently at the Canberra Writers Festival. A Highly Commended citation was awarded to Lebanon Days by Theodore Ell, acknowledged for its thoughtful exploration of personal experience during a time of political and social upheaval.

Minister for Business, Arts and Creative Industries, Michael Pettersson MLA, congratulated the winning authors saying,

"Congratulations to winners Darren Rix and Craig Cormick, highly commended author Theodore Ell, and to our shortlisted authors Andra Putnis and Qin Qin on their outstanding contributions to Canberra’s literary landscape."

Dr Theodore Ell is a Honorary Lecturer in Literature with the School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics. From 2018 to 2021, Theo accompanied his wife on her diplomatic posting to Lebanon and unexpectedly found himself a witness to a country on the brink of collapse. His memoir Lebanon Days (Atlantic Books Australia) tells their story.  

Theo has just been awarded a Fellowship at the State Library of New South Wales for 2026. This will support research on his new biography of poet Les Murray, This Country Is My Mind: The life of Les Murray.