The Mushroom Tapes, Mad Mabel and Memorial Days triumph at book awards
The Mushroom Tapes, a collaboration between authors Sarah Krasnostein, Helen Garner, and Chloe Hooper, has won the non-fiction prize at the Australian Book Industry Awards. The book explores the trial of Erin Patterson, who was convicted of using death cap mushrooms to murder her estranged husband's family. Other notable winners at the awards included Geraldine Brooks's memoir Memorial Days and Sally Hepworth's novel Mad Mabel.
- ▪The Mushroom Tapes won the non-fiction prize at the Australian Book Industry Awards.
- ▪The book discusses the trial of Erin Patterson, who was convicted of murder in 2023.
- ▪Geraldine Brooks's memoir Memorial Days won the biography award at the same event.
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The Mushroom Tapes, Mad Mabel triumph at Australian Book Industry AwardsBy Hannah StoryABC ArtsTopic:BooksThu 21 May 2026 at 11:15pmThu 21 May 2026 at 11:15pmThu 21 May 2026 at 11:15pmThree respected authors — Sarah Krasnostein, Helen Garner and Chloe Hooper — joined forces to write the now-award-winning The Mushroom Tapes. (Supplied: Text/Darren James)abc.net.au/news/australian-book-industry-awards-abias-mushroom-tapes-mad-mabel/106692880Link copiedShareShare articleIn May 2025, three of Australia's most respected literary true-crime writers set off on the almost two-hour drive from Melbourne to Morwell in regional Victoria.Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein have written on subjects as diverse as the trial of Robert Farquharson, the Black Saturday bushfires, and the daily…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at ABC News (Australia).