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Mark & Evette Moran Nib Literary Award

2019 Nominations have now closed.

The Mark and Evette Moran Nib annual literary award presented by Waverley Council with support from Mark & Evette Moran celebrates excellence in research and writing in Australia with a prize pool valued at $30,000. Click here for further details.

2019 longlist

• An Unconventional Wife: the life of Julia Sorell Arnold – Mary Hoban (Scribe)
• Imperfect: How our bodies shape the people we become - Lee Kofman (Affirm)
• Reasonable Doubt: Spies, Police and the Croatian Six - Hamish McDonald
• A Spanner in the works: the extraordinary story of Alice Anderson and Australia's first all-girl garage - Loretta Smith (Hachette)
• Honeysuckle Creek: the Story of Tom Reid, a little dish and Neil Armstrong's first step - Andrew Tink (NewSouth Books)
• No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison - Behrouz Boochani (Pan Macmillan)
• City of Trees: Essays on Life, Death and the Need for a Forest — Sophie Cunningham (Text)
• The World was Whole — Fiona Wright (Giramondo)
• Her Mother’s Daughter: A memoir— Nadia Wheatley (Text)
• The Arsonist — Chloe Hooper (Penguin)
• Troll Hunting— Ginger Gorman (Hardie Grant)
• What Will Be Worn: A McWhirters story — Melissa Fagan (Transit Lounge)
• King of the Air - Ann Blainey (Black Inc)
• Dr Space Junk vs The Universe: Archaeology and the future - Alice Gorman (NewSouth Books)
• Steve Smith’s Men - Geoff Lemon (Hardie Grant)
• Books that saved my life: Reading for Wisdom, Solace and Pleasure - Michael McGirr (Text)
• Exploded View - Carrie Tiffany (Text)

The 2019 shortlist will be announced on 26 August, with the winners announced on 14 November.

2018 Shortlist and winners

2018 Award breakfast gallery

About the Award

The Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award is Waverley Council’s annual celebration of the best in Australian research and writing. Established in 2002 as The Nib Waverley Library Award for Literature, this prestigious prize has so far distributed around $350,000 directly to deserving Australian authors.

Entries are open to all Australian writers regardless of their experience, chosen subject matter or genre. Submitted works are judged against the specific award criteria of excellence in research, high level of literary merit, readability and value to the community. Winners are decided by an independent panel of three judges each of whom bring a wealth of experience from across the literary world.

In 2019 the award program will be made up of a suite of 9 prizes, awarded across 4 categories:

• Alex Buzo Shortlist Prize (6 prizes) - $1,000 each
• Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award (the major award) - $20,000
• Nib Military History Prize – $3,000
• Nib People’s Choice Prize - $1,000

Nib sponsors

The Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award is administered and presented annually by Waverley Council with the support of Principal Sponsors Mark and Evette Moran and the generous assistance of our community partners; Mark Moran Vaucluse, Gertrude and Alice Bookshop and Cafe and Bondi Junction, North Bondi and Rose Bay RSL Sub-Branches.

Nib Presents 2019 events

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Clare Wright (Stella and Nib winner 2014) 19th Feb 2019 Join Clare Wright in conversation with Suzanne Leal to discuss her new work You Daughters of Freedom: The Australians Who Won the Vote and Inspired the World which brings to life a time when Australian democracy was the envy of the world.  Bookings essential.  Click here to book and for further details.

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Richard Glover, The Land Before Avocado 14th Apr 2019 Join author and ABC radio announcer Richard Glover to discuss his new book The Land Before Avocado.  Richard Glover takes a journey to an almost unrecognisable Australia. It’s a vivid portrait of a quite peculiar land: a place that is scary and weird, dangerous and incomprehensible, and, now and then, surprisingly appealing. Bookings essential.  Click here to book, and for further details.

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Join Mark Dapin to discuss his new work Australia’s Vietnam: Myth vs history 16th May 2019 When journalist and historian Mark Dapin first interviewed Vietnam veterans and wrote about the war, he swallowed (and regurgitated) every misconception. He wasn’t alone. In Australia's Vietnam, Dapin argues that every stage of Australia’s Vietnam War has been obscured by myth. This work is a major contribution to the understanding of Australia’s experience of the war and will change the way we think about memory and military history. Click here to book and for further details.

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Join Ashleigh Wilson in conversation with Stephen Romei to discuss his new work On Artists 4th Jun 2019 If we denounce an artist for bad behaviour, what becomes of the work that remains? The #MeToo movement is overturning a cliché that has forgiven bad behaviour for years: to be creative is to be prone to eccentricity, madness, addiction and excess. No longer can artists be excused from the standards of conduct that apply to us all. Click here to book and for further details.

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2019 Mark & Evette Moran NiB Literary Award Shortlist announcement | followed by Telling Truths: Researching the Story, Jane Caro in conversation with Bri Lee 31st Aug 2019 A special event announcing the 2019 NiB Literary Award shortlist, followed by an in conversation with Jane Caro and Bri Lee.