National Biography Award 2022 shortlist announced

The State Library of New South Wales (SLNSW) has announced the shortlist for the $25,000 National Biography Award.

The shortlisted books are:

• Car Crash: A memoir (Lech Blaine, Black Inc.)
• Home Truths: A memoir (David Williamson, HarperCollins)
• Into the Loneliness: The unholy alliance of Ernestine Hill and Daisy Bates (Eleanor Hogan, NewSouth)
• Leaping Into Waterfalls: The enigmatic Gillian Mears (Bernadette Brennan, A&U)
• The Mother Wound (Amani Haydar, Macmillan)
• One Day I’ll Remember This: Diaries 1987–1995 (Helen Garner, Text).

The six shortlisted authors each receive $2000. This year’s prize was judged by Suzanne Falkiner, Rick Morton and Mandy Sayer, who also highly commended three debuts works of memoir and biography: Black and Blue: A memoir of racism and resilience (Veronica Gorrie, Scribe), Mother and I: The history of a wilful family (Ianto Ware, Hunter Publishers) and Muddy People: A memoir (Sara El Sayed, Black Inc.).

The winner of the 2022 National Biography Award, and the $5000 Michael Crouch Award for a Debut Work, will be announced in August. Cassandra Pybus won the 2021 prize for Truganini: Journey through the apocalypse (A&U).

For more information about this year’s shortlist, and to read the judges’ comments, see the SLNSW website.

Category: Awards Local news