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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.
- 2024: Lamisse Hamouda for The Shape of Dust: a father wrongly imprisoned. A daughter's quest to free him[6][5]
- 2023: Ann-Marie Priest for My Tongue Is My Own: A Life of Gwen Harwood[7]
- 2022: Bernadette Brennan for Leaping into Waterfalls: The Enigmatic Gillian Mears[8][9]
- 2021: Cassandra Pybus for Truganini: Journey Through the Apocalypse[10][11]
- 2020: Patrick Mullins for Tiberius with a Telephone: The Life and Stories of William McMahon[12][13]
- 2019: Behrouz Boochani for No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison[14]
- 2018: Judith Brett for The Enigmatic Mr Deakin[15]
- 2017: Tom D C Roberts for Before Rupert: Keith Murdoch and the Birth of a Dynasty[16][17]
- 2016: Brenda Niall for Mannix[18][19]
- 2015: Philip Butterss for An Unsentimental Bloke: The Life and Work of C J Dennis [20]
- 2014: Alison Alexander for The Ambitions of Jane Franklin: Victorian Lady Adventurer[21]
- 2013: Peter Fitzpatrick for The Two Frank Thrings[22]
- 2012: Martin Thomas for The Many Worlds of R. H. Mathews: In Search of an Australian Anthropologist[23]
- 2011: Alasdair McGregor for Grand Obsessions: The Life and Work of Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin[24]
- 2010: Brian Matthews for Manning Clark: A Life[24]
- 2009: Ann Blainey for I am Melba[24]
- 2008: Joint winners[24]
- Philip Dwyer for Napoleon, 1769-1799: The Path to Power
- Graham Seal for These Few Lines: A Convict Story – The Lost Lives of Myra and William Sykes
- 2007: Jacob Rosenberg for East of Time[24]
- 2006: John Hughes for The Idea of Home[24]
- 2005: Robert Hillman for The Boy in the Green Suit[24]
- 2004: Barry Hill for Broken Song: T.G.H. Strehlow and Aboriginal Possession[24]
- 2003: Joint winners[24]
- Peter Rose for Rose Boys
- Don Watson for Recollections of a Bleeding Heart : a Portrait of Paul Keating PM
- 2002: Jacqueline Kent for A Certain Style: Beatrice Davis, a Literary Life[24]
- 2000: Joint winners[24]
- Peter Robb for M, a biography of European painter Caravaggio
- Mandy Sayer for Dreamtime Alice: a Memoir
- 1998: Roberta Sykes for Snake Cradle[24]
- 1996: Abraham Biderman for The World of My Past[24]
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]
- 2018: Unauthorised, by Tom D C Roberts[25]
- 2017: A tale finds its teller: writing the biography of Thea Astley, by Karen Lamb[26]
- 2016: For better or worse: The relationship between biographer and subject, by Philip Butterss[27]
- 2015: Biography and me: notes on the wonders of others (and some on self), by Kim Williams AM[28]
- 2014: Based on a true story, by Linda Jaivin[29]
- 2013: A different perspective, a shared story, by John Elder Robison[30]
- 2012: Looking for Eliza by Evelyn Juers[31]
- 2011: Recollections of a Bleeding Heart: A Portrait of Paul Keating PM, by Don Watson
- 2010: Biography: The Art of the Impossible, by Hilary McPhee AO
- 2009: ‘Truth’ as applied to biography and autobiography, by Raimond Gaita
- 2008: Biography, Autobiography and Memoir: Presidential Bests and Worsts, by Bob Carr[32]
- 2007: Biography: The Impossible Art, by Inga Clendinnen[33]
- 2006: Materials for Life: The Enduring Value of Biography, by Robyn Archer
- 2005: Personal Drama: David Williamson on Self-depiction, by David Williamson
- 2004: The Observed of all Observers: Biography in Poetry, by Peter Porter (poet)
- 2003: Goethe's Two Left Feet: Reflections on the Hazards and Liberties of Biography, by Peter Rose (writer)
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