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National Biography Award 2016 shortlist announced

The State Library of NSW has announced the shortlist for the 2016 National Biography Award for biographical writing and memoir.

The shortlisted titles are:

  •  Battarbee and Namatjira (Martin Edmond, Giramondo)
  • Comrade Ambassador: Whitlam’s Beijing Envoy (Stephen FitzGerald, MUP)
  • Thea Astley: Inventing Her Own Weather (Karen Lamb, UQP)
  • Mannix (Brenda Niall, Text)
  • Bearing Witness: The Remarkable Life of Charles Bean, Australia’s Greatest War Correspondent (Peter Rees, A&U)
  • Reckoning: A Memoir (Magda Szubanski, Text).

The winner will be announced on 8 August at an event at the State Library of NSW. The winner will receive $25,000 and each shortlisted author will receive $1000.

Chair of judges Peter Cochrane said the judges were ‘impressed and dazzled by the quality and range of entries, confirming that biography is alive and well in Australia and the genre is thriving’.

Cochrane is joined by Richard White and Rosemary Sorensen on the judging panel for the 2016 award.

Read more about the prize here.

 

Category: Local news