2018 Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award longlist announced

31 August 2018

2018 Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award longlist announced

Waverley Council is thrilled to announce the longlist for the 2018 Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award celebrating excellence in research and writing in Australia.

The Nib is a national literary award and the only one of its type presented by a local council.

A record number of nominations were received in this year’s Nib which is judged on the quality of research, literary merit, readability and value to the community.

The shortlist will be announced on 17 September, with the winners announced on 22 November at a breakfast event hosted by author, broadcaster and literary champion, Richard Glover.

Waverley Mayor, Cr John Wakefield, said since its inception in 2002, the Nib has become one of the Council’s most valued cultural programs.

“The Nib celebrates the contribution our writers and thinkers make to how we view the world through the events that shape us as a society,” Mayor Wakefield said.

“The longlist includes some of Australia’s finest authors and was chosen by an esteemed group of authors, academics and industry leaders.

“Everyone on the longlist should feel very proud.”

The award program covers four categories:

  • Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award- $20,000
  • Nib Military History Prize- $3000
  • Alex Buzo Shortlist Prize, (six prizes of $1000 each)
  • Nib People’s Choice Prize- $1000

The 2018 longlist is:

  • Relatively Famous, Roger Averill (Transit Lounge)
  • The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman’s Extraordinary Life in Death, Decay & Disaster, Sarah Krasnostein (Text Publishing)
  • The Dead Still Cry Out,Helen Lewis (Text Publishing)
  • Korea: Where the American Century Began,Michael Pembroke (Hardie Grant Books)
  • A Life Underwater,Charlie Veron (Penguin Random House)
  • Eggshell Skull,Bri Lee (Allen & Unwin)
  • A Scandal in Bohemia,Gideon Haigh (Penguin Random House)
  • The Book of Dirt, Bram Presser (Text Publishing)
  • Call of the Reed Warbler,Charles Massy (The University of Queensland Press)
  • The Library: A Catalogue of Wonders, Stuart Kells (Text Publishing)
  • The Maddest Place on Earth, Jill Giese (Australian Scholarly Publishing)
  • Mirror Sydney, Vanessa Berry(Giramondo Publishing)
  • The Suitcase Baby,  Tanya Bretherton (Hachette Australia)
  • The Wasp and the Orchid, Danielle Clode (Pan Macmillan Australia)
  • Girls at the Piano, Virginia Lloyd (Allen & Unwin)
  • Small Wrongs: How we really say sorry in love, life and law, Kate Rossmanith (Hardie Grant Books)
  • Australian Gypsies: Their secret history,  Mandy Sayer (UNSW New South Publishing)
  • The Enigmatic Mr Deakin, Judith Brett (Text Publishing)
  • Charlatan,  Catherine Jinks (Penguin Random House)
  • The Master Gardener, Andrew Lemon (Hardie Grant Books)

Recent Nib winners include Rachel Landers, author of Who Bombed the Hilton and Erik Jensen, author of Acute Misfortune: The Life and Death of Adam Cullen.

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; Friends of Waverley Library (FOWL), Gertrude and Alice Bookshop and Cafe, Mark Moran Vaucluse and Bondi Junction, North Bondi, and Rose Bay RSL Sub-Branches.