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Nib Literary Award 2023 longlist announced

Monday, 31 July 2023   Books+Publishing
@booksandpublishing

The longlist for the 2023 Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award, worth $40,000, has been announced.

The longlisted titles are:

  • An Intimate History of Evolution: The story of the Huxley family (Alison Bashford, Allen Lane)
  • One Illumined Thread (Sally Colin-James, HarperCollins)
  • My Giddy Aunt: And her sister comedians (Sharon Connolly, Upswell)
  • We Come with This Place (Debra Dank, Echo)
  • Anam (André Dao, Hamish Hamilton)
  • Emperors in Lilliput (Jim Davidson, Miegunyah)
  • The Bell of the World (Gregory Day, Transit Lounge)
  • Reckless (Marele Day, Ultimo)
  • The Great Dead Body Teacher (Jackie Dent, Ultimo)
  • The Plant Thieves: Secrets of the herbarium (Prudence Gibson, NewSouth)
  • Aphrodite’s Breath (Susan Johnson, A&U)
  • Ghosts of the Orphanage (Christine Kenneally, Hachette)
  • Staging a Revolution: When Betty rocked the pram (Kath Kenny, Upswell)
  • Graft (Maggie MacKellar, Hamish Hamilton)
  • The Age of Seeds (Fiona McMillian-Webster, Thames & Hudson)
  • Life So Full of Promise: Further biographies of Australia’s lost generation (Ross McMullin, Scribe)
  • Shirley Hazzard: A writing life (Brigitta Olubas, Virago)
  • The One Thing We’ve Never Spoken About: Exposing our untold mental health crisis (Elfy Scott, Pantera)
  • Political Lives: Australian prime ministers and their biographers (Chris Wallace, UNSW)
  • The Passion of Private White (Don Watson, Scribner).

The Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award, known as ‘the Nib’, is presented by Sydney’s Waverley Council. The award celebrates ‘the most compelling research-based Australian literature and is awarded to nominated published works of any genre that best fulfil the criteria of high literary merit, quality of research, readability and value to the community’.

This year’s judging panel included poet Jamie Grant, author Katerina Cosgrove and publisher Julia Carlomagno, who said: ‘Many of the longlisted books not only match but surpass our award guidelines, ranging from introspective, deeply felt works, to impassioned examinations of historical, social, and contemporary cultural issues to innovative narratives of family dynamics and hidden worlds.’

A shortlist will be announced on 4 September, with each of the six finalists to receive $1500. Winners of the Nib People’s Choice Prize ($4000) and the Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award ($40,000) will be announced 9 November. The Moran family recently doubled the prize money of the award.

For more information, see the Waverley Council website.

 

Category: Awards Local news