Dr Khin Myint from the School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry has been awarded the 2025 Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award for his memoir Fragile Creatures.

First awarded in 1967, the Roderick is one of Australia’s longest-running and most prestigious national prizes, recognising a book that engages with Australian life. The award carries a $50,000 prize and the H.T. Priestley Memorial Medal. Past winners include Tim Winton, Helen Garner, Alexis Wright, David Malouf, Peter Carey and Melissa Lucashenko. Khin is only the fourth debut author to receive the honour since the award’s inception.

Fragile Creatures explores themes of race, masculinity, illness and belonging, drawing on Khin’s personal story of growing up in Perth and his family experiences. The book was completed as part of a creative practice PhD at Curtin, supervised by Dr David Whish-Wilson and Dr Thor Kerr.

The memoir has also been recognised as a finalist in other leading literary awards, including the WA Premier’s Book Awards and the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards non-fiction category.

Congratulations to Dr Khin Myint on this remarkable achievement.

A man sitting on a park bench outside while holding his book 'Fragile Creatures'.
Dr Khin Myint with his award winning memoir. Image credit: Bethany Keats.