Nib Literary Award
Australian literary award
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The Nib Literary Award, established in 2002 at the suggestion of actor and producer Chris Haywood, the Patron of the Friends of Waverley Library, as The Nib Waverley Library Award for Literature and since 2017 known as the Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award,[1] is an Australian literary award for works in any genre, awarded annually at Waverley Library in Sydney. It is also known as 'The Nib': CAL Waverley Library Award for Literature.[2]
| Nib Literary Award | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | a work that demonstrates excellence in literary research |
| Sponsored by | Mark and Evette Moran |
| Venue | Waverley Library |
| Formerly called | The Nib Waverley Library Award for Literature |
| Rewards | A$40,000 (winner) A$1,500 (shortlist) A$4,000 (People's Choice) |
| Currently held by | Clever Men by Martin Thomas |
Award
Organised and supported by Waverley Council, the award recognises "excellence in literary research", and books in any genre and either non-fiction or fiction are considered for it. There are cash prizes for the winning and shortlisted books, with each of the shortlisted authors also earning the Alex Buzo Shortlist Prize.[2]
In 2017, the Nib was renamed the Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award, and three new categories were added: the People's Choice, the Alex Buzo Shortlist Prize, and a Military History Prize.[2]
In the 2019 Awards, there was a prize pool of A$30,000: the main award A$20,000, the Nib Military History Prize A$3,000, Nib People's Choice Prize A$1,000 and the Alex Buzo Shortlist Prize, six prizes of A$1,000 each. The main sponsors were Mark and Evette Moran of Vaucluse.[1] As of 2025[update], the main award is valued at A$40,000, the People's Choice A$4,000 and shortlisted authors receive A$1,500 each.
Winners
| Year | Author | Work | Publisher | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Tim Low | The New Nature | Penguin | [3] |
| 2003 | Barry Hill | Broken Song: T. G. H. Strehlow and Aboriginal Possession | Penguin | [3] |
| 2004 | Geoffrey Blaney | Black Kettle and Full Moon | Penguin | [3] |
| 2005 | Helen Garner | Joe Cinque's Consolation | Pan Macmillan | [3] |
| 2006 | Gideon Haigh | Asbestos House: The Secret History of James Hardie Industries | Scribe | [3] |
| 2007 | John Bailey | Mr. Stuart's Track: The Forgotten Life of Australia's Greatest Explorer | Pan Macmillan | [3] |
| 2008 | Christopher Koch | The Memory Room | Penguin | [3] |
| 2009 | Robert Gray | The Land I Came Through Last | Giramondo | [3] |
| 2010 | Andrew Tink | William Charles Wentworth: Australia's Greatest Native Son | Allen & Unwin | [4] |
| 2011 | Delia Falconer | Sydney | NewSouth | [5] |
| 2012 | Jane Gleeson-White | Double Entry | Allen & Unwin | [6] |
| 2013 | Gideon Haigh | On Warne | Hamish Hamilton | [7] |
| 2014 | Clare Wright | The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka | Text | [8] |
| 2015 | Erik Jensen | Acute Misfortune | Black Inc. | [9] |
| 2016 | Rachel Landers | Who Bombed the Hilton? | NewSouth | [10] |
| 2017 | Kate Cole-Adams | Anaesthesia: The Gift of Oblivion and the Mystery of Consciousness | Text | [11] |
| 2018 | Helen Lewis | The Dead Still Cry Out | Text | [12] |
| 2019 | Nadia Wheatley | Her Mother's Daughter | Text | [13] |
| 2020 | Rebecca Giggs | Fathoms | Scribe | [14] |
| 2021 | Luke Stegemann | Amnesia Road: Landscape, Violence and Memory | NewSouth | [15] |
| 2022 | Delia Falconer | Signs and Wonders: Dispatches from a Time of Beauty and Loss | Scribner | [16] |
| 2023 | Alison Bashford | An Intimate History of Evolution: The Story of the Huxley Family | Allen Lane | [17] |
| 2024 | Melissa Lucashenko | Edenglassie | University of Queensland Press | [18] |
| 2025 | Martin Thomas | Clever Men | Allen & Unwin | [19] |
Alex Buzo Shortlist Prize recipients
| Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Kate Cole-Adams | Anesthesia: The Gift of Oblivion and the Mystery of Consciousness | Winner | |
| Richard Fidler | Ghost Empire | Shortlist | ||
| Bruce Munday | Those Wild Rabbits: How They Shaped Australia | Shortlist | ||
| Madeleine O'Dea | The Phoenix Years: Art, Resistance, and the Making of Modern China | Shortlist | ||
| Sebastian Smee | The Art of Rivalry: Four Friendships, Betrayals, and Breakthroughs in Modern Art | Shortlist | ||
| 2018 | Helen Lewis | The Dead Still Cry Out: The Story of a Combat Cameraman | Winner | |
| Roger Averill | Relatively Famous | Shortlist | ||
| Tanya Bretherton | The Suitcase Baby: The Heartbreaking True Story of a Shocking Crime in 1920s Sydney | Shortlist | ||
| Sarah Krasnostein | The Trauma Cleaner | Shortlist | ||
| Bri Lee | Eggshell Skull | Shortlist | ||
| Charles Massy | Call of the Reed Warbler: A New Agriculture, a New Earth | Shortlist | ||
| 2019 | Nadia Wheatley | Her Mother's Daughter: A Memoir | Winner | |
| Alice Gorman | Dr Space Junk vs The Universe: Archaeology and the Future | Shortlist | ||
| Mary Hoban | An Unconventional Wife: The Life of Julia Sorell Arnold | Shortlist | ||
| Chloe Hooper | The Arsonist | Shortlist | ||
| Lee Kofman | Imperfect | Shortlist | ||
| 2020 | Rebecca Giggs | Fathoms: The World in the Whale | Winner | |
| Brenda Niall | Friends and Rivals: Four Great Australian Writers: Barbara Baynton, Ethel Turner, Nettie Palmer, Henry Handel Richardson | Shortlist | ||
| Imre Salusinszky | The Hilton Bombing: Evan Pederick and the Ananda Marga | Shortlist | ||
| Quentin Sprague | The Stranger Artist: Life at the Edge of Kimberley Painting | Shortlist | ||
| 2021 | Luke Stegemann | Amnesia Road: Landscape, Violence and Memory | Winner | |
| Gabrielle Carey | Only Happiness Here: In Search of Elizabeth Von Arnim | Shortlist | ||
| Kate Holden | The Winter Road: A Story of Legacy, Land and a Killing at Croppa Creek | Shortlist | ||
| Ramona Koval | A Letter to Layla: Travels to Our Deep Past and near Future | Shortlist | ||
| Sarah Krasnostein | The Believer: Encounters with the Beginning, the End, and Our Place in the Middle | Shortlist | ||
| Tim Olsen | Son of the Brush | Shortlist | ||
| 2022 | Delia Falconer | Signs and Wonders: Dispatches from a Time of Beauty and Loss | Winner | |
| Tim Bonyhady | Two Afternoons in the Kabul Stadium | Shortlist | ||
| Carol Major | The Asparagus Wars | Shortlist | ||
| Colin McLaren, Anna Sergi | Mafioso | Shortlist | ||
| Steve Toltz | Here Goes Nothing | Shortlist | ||
| 2023 | Alison Bashford | An Intimate History of Evolution: The Story of the Huxley Family | Winner | |
| André Dao | Anam | Shortlist | ||
| Jim Davidson | Emperors in Lilliput: Clem Christesen of Meanjin and Stephen Murray-Smith of Overland | Shortlist | ||
| Fiona McMillan-Webster | The Age of Seeds | Shortlist | ||
| Ross McMullin | Life So Full of Promise: Further Biographies of Australia's Lost Generation | Shortlist | ||
| Brigitta Olubas | Shirley Hazzard: A Writing Life | Shortlist | ||
| 2024 | Melissa Lucashenko | Edenglassie | Winner | |
| Shauna Bostock | Reaching Through Time: Finding My Family's Stories | Shortlist | ||
| Deborah Conway | Book of Life | Shortlist | ||
| Ryan Cropp | Donald Horne: A Life in the Lucky Country | Shortlist | ||
| Anna Funder | Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life | Shortlist | ||
| Dave Witty | What the Trees See: A Wander Through Millennia of Natural History in Australia | Shortlist | ||
| 2025 | Martin Thomas | Clever Men | Winner | |
| Helen Ennis | Max Dupain | Shortlist | [20] | |
| Amy McQuire | Black Witness | Shortlist | ||
| Rick Morton | Mean Streak (People's Choice winner) | Shortlist | ||
| Samah Sabawi | Cactus Pear for My Beloved | Shortlist | ||
| Tasma Walton | I Am Nannertgarrook | Shortlist |