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Mark & Evette Moran Nib Literary Award

The Mark & Evette Moran Nib Literary Award is presented annually by Waverley Council with support from Principal Sponsors Mark and Evette Moran. Celebrating it's 20th anniversary in 2021, the Nib remains Australia's only major literary award of its kind presented by a local council. Judging criteria includes high literary merit, quality of research, readability and value to the community.

Waverley Council is delighted to announce the longlist for the 2021 Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award.

The 2021 longlist is:

• The Truth about China: Propaganda, patriotism and the search for answers,
  Bill Birtles (Allen & Unwin)
• The Husband Poisoner: Suburban women who killed in post-World War II SydneyTanya Bretherton (Hachette Australia)
• Only Happiness Here: In Search of Elizabeth von Arnim, Gabrielle Carey (UQP)
• Monsters: A reckoning, Alison Croggon (Scribe)
• Brave New Humans: The Dirty Reality of Donor Conception, Sarah Dingle (Hardie Grant)
• The Golden Maze, Richard Fidler (Harper Collins Australia)
• The Climate Cure: Solving the Climate Emergency in the Era of COVID-19,
  Tim Flannery (Text Publishing)
• The Last Lions of Africa, Anthony Ham (Allen & Unwin)
• The Winter Road: A Story of Legacy, Land and a Killing at Croppa Creek, Kate Holden (Black Inc Books)
• Where the Water Ends: Seeking Refuge in Fortress Europe, Zoe Holman (MUP)
• A Letter to Layla: Travels to Our Deep Past and Near Future, Ramona Koval (Text Publishing)
• The Believer: Encounters with Love, Death & Faith, Sarah Krasnostein (Text Publishing)
• Who Gets to Be Smart: Privilege, Power and Knowledge, Bri Lee (Allen & Unwin)
• Return to Uluru, Mark McKenna (Black Ink Books)
• Son of the Brush, Tim Olsen (Allen & Unwin)
• A Paper Inheritance, Dymphna Stella Rees (UQP)
• The Imitator, Rebecca Starford (Allen & Unwin)
• Amnesia Road, Landscape, violence and memory, Luke Stegemann (NewSouth Books)

The shortlist will be announced on 27 September, with the People’s Choice Prize and Nib Award winners announced in November.

This year’s award has a total prize offering of $28,500 awarded across three categories including the Alex Buzo Shortlist Prize (6x $1,000), Nib People’s Choice Prize ($2,500) and the Mark & Evette Moran Nib Literary Award ($20,000).

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Send award program inquiries to nibaward@waverley.nsw.gov.au

Media inquiries: media@waverley.nsw.gov.au or 0416 075 532

The Mark & Evette Moran Nib Literary Award is administered and presented annually by Waverley Council with the generous support of Principal Sponsors Mark and Evette Moran and the ongoing commitment and assistance of our community partner Gertrude and Alice Bookshop and Café.

The Nib Award acknowledges the important role played by the Friends Of Waverley Library (FOWL) in the establishment and success of the award.

About the Award

The Mark & 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.

Watch on demand

2020 Award Presentation

Watch the winners interview and the judges report here.

Recent panel discussions

The Nib Presents: Guwayu – For all Times

The Nib Presents: Australian Indigenous Voices in Literature

The Nib Presents: Not so pretty: International Women’s Day

Nib Presents 2021 events

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2020 Mark & Evette Moran Nib Literary Award Shortlist & Winners

Waverley Council is delighted to announce the 2020 winners: Congratulations to:

							Mark & Evette Moran Nib Literary Award ($20,000)  FATHOMS: The World In The Whale by Rebecca Giggs (Scribe Publications)
							Nib People's Choice Prize ($1,000) The Deceptions by Suzanne Leal (Allen & Unwin)

Alex Buzo Shortlist Prize ($1,000 each)
The Shortlist Prize is named in recognition of the distinguished author and playwright Alex Buzo, who was a Waverley resident and instrumental in the establishment of the Nib Award.

• After the Count: The death of Davey Browne by Stephanie Convery (Penguin)
• FATHOMS: the world in the whale by Rebecca Giggs (Scribe Publications)
• The Deceptions by Suzanne Leal (Allen & Unwin)
• Friends and Rivals: Four Great Australian Writers; Barbara Baynton, Ethel Turner, Nettie Palmer, Henry Handel Richardson by Brenda Niall (Text Publishing)
• The Hilton Bombing; Evan Pederick and the Ananda Marga
  by Imre Salusinszky (Melbourne University Publishing)
• The Stranger Artist: Life at the edge of Kimberley painting by Quentin Sprague(Hardie Grant Publishing)

Nothing New: A History of Second-hand, Robyn Annear (Text Publishing) After the Count:The death of Davey Browne, Stephanie Convery (Penguin Books Australia) Olive Cotton: A Life in Photography, Helen Ennis (Harper Collins Australia) Fathoms: The World in the Whale, Rebecca Giggs (Scribe) Benevolence,  Julie Janson (Magabala Books) Displaced: A Rural Life,  John Kinsella (Transit Lounge) The Deceptions, Suzanne Leal (Allen & Unwin) Women, Men and the Whole Damn Thing, David Lesser (Allen & Unwin) The Joy of High Places, Patti Miller (New South Publishing)

The Trials of Portnoy, Patrick Mullins (Scribe) Friends and Rivals, Brenda Niall (Text Publishing) David Campbell: A Life of the Poet, Jonathan Persse (Australian Scholarly Publishing) Truganni, Cassandra Pybus (Allen & Unwin) Who Owns History?, Geoffrey Robertson (Penguin Books Australia) Bruny, Heather Rose (Allen & Unwin) The Hilton Bombing, Imre Salusinksy (Melbourne University Press) The Stranger Artist,  Quentin Sprague (Hardie Grant Books) Fake, Stephanie Wood (Penguin Books Australia)

Mark & Evette Moran Nib Literary Award finalists and Alex Buzo Shortlist Prize winners will be announced on 1 September. The People's Choice Prize and major award winners will be announced on 12 November.

Since its inception, the Nib has distributed more than $400,000 directly to deserving Australian authors including previous winners Erik Jensen, Gideon Haigh, Clare Wright OAM and Nadia Wheatley. In 2020, the Nib has a total prize pool of $27,000 on offer across three categories including the Alex Buzo Shortlist Prize (6x $1,000), Nib People’s Choice Prize ($1,000) and the Mark & Evette Moran Nib Literary Award ($20,000). This year's long-listed titles now progress to the next round of judging and move closer to potentially sharing in total prize pool of $27,000. Winners are decided by an independent panel of three judges each of whom bring a wealth of experience from across the literary world.