NSW Premier’s History Awards 2022 shortlists announced

The State Library of NSW (SLNSW) has announced the shortlists for the 2022 NSW Premier’s History Awards, worth $15,000 in each category.

The shortlisted titles in each category are:

Australian history Prize

• French Connection: Australia’s cosmopolitan ambitions (Alexis Bergantz, NewSouth)
• Semut: The untold story of a secret Australian operation in WWII Borneo (Christine Helliwell, Michael Joseph)
• Australia and the Pacific: A history (Ian Hoskins, NewSouth)

General history Prize

• King Leopold’s Ghostwriter: The creation of persons and states in the nineteenth century (Andrew Fitzmaurice, Princeton University Press)
• Young Soeharto: The making of a soldier 1921–1945 (David Jenkins, MUP)
• The Filipino Migration Experience: Global agents of change (Mina Roces, Cornell University Press)

NSW regional and community history prize

• Power and Dysfunction: The New South Wales board for the protection of Aborigines 1883–1940 (Richard Egan, ANU Press)
• Gudyarra: The first Wiradyuri War of Resistance—the Bathurst War, 1822–1824 (Stephen Gapps, NewSouth)
• The Winter Road: A story of legacy, land, and a killing at Croppa Creek (Kate Holden, Black Inc.)

Young people’s history prize

• The Dunggiirr Brothers and the Caring Song of the Whale (Aunty Shaa Smith, Neeyan Smith, Uncle Bud Marshall with Yandaarra including Sarah Wright, Lara Daley & Paul Hodge, A&U Children’s)
• Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief (Katrina Nannestad, ABC Books)
• Elsewhere Girls (Emily Gale & Nova Weetman, Text)

Digital history prize

• The Last Outlaws (Katherine Biber & Aunty Loretta Parsley, Impact Studios, the University of Technology Sydney)
• Ablaze (Alec Morgan & Tiriki Onus, Jotz Productions)
• Chinese Australian History in 88 Objects (Michael Williams).

The judging panel is made up of an independent committee of academics, historians and ot her sector professionals who have been appointed by the premier, the arts minister or their delegates.

The winners will be announced on Friday, 2 September at a free event held at the SLNSW.

For more information on the awards, and to read the judges’ comments, see the SLNSW website.

Category: Awards Local news