Manus Island detainee Behrouz Boochani said winning Australia's richest writing award was a "victory for human beings and human dignity" after hearing the news last night.
The Kurdish journalist's No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison - written mostly via WhatsApp messages from the prison - was one of six books nominated for the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards non-fiction section, announced on Thursday night.
"It is a victory not only for us, but for literature and art, and above all, it is a victory for humanity - a victory for human beings and human dignity," he said.
"A victory against a system that has never recognised us as human beings. It is a victory against a system that has reduced us to numbers. This is a beautiful moment."
He took out the non-fiction section, earning $25,000, before going on to win the $100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature, the most valuable literary award in the country.
While conditions stipulate that authors must be Australian citizens or permanent residents of Australia, organisers The Wheeler Centre made an exception for Mr Boochani.
Mr Boochani has been ineligible to enter other Australian literary awards including the Walkley book award and the NSW Premier's Literary Prize as he is not an Australian citizen.
The Kurdish journalist has been on Manus Island since 2013 after fleeing Iran and the book is a record of his time there.
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