The National Biography Award, established in Australia in 1996, is awarded for the best published work of biographical or autobiographical writing by an Australian. It aims "to encourage the highest standards of writing biography and autobiography and to promote public interest in those genres". [1] It was initially awarded every two years, but from 2002 it has been awarded annually. Its administration was taken over by the State Library of New South Wales in 1998.
It was originally endowed by private benefactor, Dr. Geoffrey Cains, and the original prize money was $12,500. In 2002, Cains said of endowing the award that "I wanted to give back to literature something, it had given me so much; besides, philanthropy in this country is so overlooked and diminished". [2] In 2005, the prize money was increased to $20,000 with the support of Michael Crouch. [3] Belinda Hutchinson, former President of the Library Council of NSW, expressed gratitude for this increase to "an award that celebrates the Australian psyche through distinguished biography writing." [3]
In 2012 the prize money for the Award has been increased to $25,000. Since 2013, each shortlisted author receives $1,000. [4] The judging panel varies from year to year. In 2018 the Michael Crouch Award was introduced for an Australian writer's first published biography. [5]
The shortlist is announced in early July each year, followed by the winner announcement in early August.
| Year | Author | Title | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Abbas El-Zein | Bullet, Paper, Rock: A Memoir of Words and Wars | [6] |
| 2024 | Lamisse Hamouda | The Shape of Dust: a father wrongly imprisoned. A daughter's quest to free him | [7] |
| 2023 | Ann-Marie Priest | My Tongue Is My Own: A Life of Gwen Harwood | [8] |
| 2022 | Bernadette Brennan | Leaping into Waterfalls: The Enigmatic Gillian Mears | [9] [10] |
| 2021 | Cassandra Pybus | Truganini: Journey Through the Apocalypse | [11] [12] |
| 2020 | Patrick Mullins | Tiberius with a Telephone: The Life and Stories of William McMahon | [13] [14] |
| 2019 | Behrouz Boochani | No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison | [15] |
| 2018 | Judith Brett | The Enigmatic Mr Deakin | [16] |
| 2017 | Tom D C Roberts | Before Rupert: Keith Murdoch and the Birth of a Dynasty | [17] [18] |
| 2016 | Brenda Niall | Mannix | [19] [20] |
| 2015 | Philip Butterss | An Unsentimental Bloke: The Life and Work of C J Dennis | [21] |
| 2014 | Alison Alexander | The Ambitions of Jane Franklin: Victorian Lady Adventurer | [22] |
| 2013 | Peter Fitzpatrick | The Two Frank Thrings | [23] |
| 2012 | Martin Thomas | The Many Worlds of R. H. Mathews: In Search of an Australian Anthropologist | [24] |
| 2011 | Alasdair McGregor | Grand Obsessions: The Life and Work of Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin | [25] |
| 2010 | Brian Matthews | Manning Clark: A Life | [25] |
| 2009 | Ann Blainey | I am Melba | [25] |
| 2008 | Philip Dwyer | Napoleon, 1769-1799: The Path to Power | [25] |
| Graham Seal | These Few Lines: A Convict Story – The Lost Lives of Myra and William Sykes | ||
| 2007 | Jacob Rosenberg | East of Time | [25] |
| 2006 | John Hughes | The Idea of Home | [25] |
| 2005 | Robert Hillman | The Boy in the Green Suit | [25] |
| 2004 | Barry Hill | Broken Song: T.G.H. Strehlow and Aboriginal Possession | [25] |
| 2003 | Peter Rose | Rose Boys | [25] |
| Don Watson | Recollections of a Bleeding Heart : a Portrait of Paul Keating PM | ||
| 2002 | Jacqueline Kent | A Certain Style: Beatrice Davis, a Literary Life | [25] |
| 2000 | Peter Robb | M, a biography of European painter Caravaggio | [25] |
| Mandy Sayer | Dreamtime Alice: a Memoir | ||
| 1998 | Roberta Sykes | Snake Cradle | [25] |
| 1996 | Abraham Biderman | The World of My Past | [25] |
In 2003, the National Biography Award lecture was instituted. It is associated with the award, and was also sponsored by Cains and Crouch. It is given annually, but takes place during the same week as the announcement of the winner. [1]
Lectures included:
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