Media release: Shortlist announced for 2018 Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award as voting opens for The Nib People’s Choice prize

17 September 2018

17 September 2018

Shortlist announced for 2018 Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award as voting opens for The Nib People’s Choice prize

Waverley Council is excited to announce the exceptional shortlist for the 2018 Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award, which celebrates excellence in research and writing in Australia.

This year’s shortlisted books are by authors all appearing on The Nib shortlist for the first time and includes three debut books, including Sarah Krasnostein’s The Trauma Cleaner, which has picked up numerous literary awards.

Judged on the quality of research, literary merit, readability and value to the community, The Nib is a national literary award with a generous prize pool of $30,000, and the only one of its type presented by a local council.

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) and Nib People’s Choice Prize ($1000).

This year’s shortlist contains one novel and five works of non-fiction.

Head judge, Jamie Grant said the judges had a record-breaking number of entries to consider for this year’s Nib award, and the quality of those entries matched their quantity.

The 2018 shortlist 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)
  • Eggshell Skull,Bri Lee (Allen & Unwin)
  • Call of the Reed Warbler,Charles Massy (The University of Queensland Press)
  • The Suitcase Baby, Tanya Bretherton (Hachette Australia)

Voting for the popular Nib People’s Choice Prize will be open from Monday 17 September through to 22 October. Australian readers are encouraged to vote for their favourite book from the shortlist with the winner awarded a $1000 prize.

Entry forms are available at the Waverley Library and Customer Service Centre, Gertrude and Alice Cafe Bookstore or online at www.waverley.nsw.gov.au/nib.

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

About the shortlisted books:

Relatively Famous, Roger Averill (Transit Lounge)

A powerful and entertaining novel about literature, art and living in the shadow of someone famous. Relatively Famous subtly explores notions of success, masculinity, betrayal and loss, and ultimately what it might mean to live a good life. Roger Averill is the award-winning author of Exile: The lives and hopes of Werner Pelz, Boy He Cry: An island odyssey and the novel, Keeping Faith. He lives with his wife and two daughters in Melbourne, Australia

The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman’s Extraordinary Life in Death, Decay & Disaster, Sarah Krasnostein (Text Publishing)

Before she was a trauma cleaner, Sandra Pankhurst was many things: husband and father, drag queen, gender reassignment patient, sex worker, small businesswoman, trophy wife… Sarah Krasnostein has watched the extraordinary Sandra Pankhurst bring order and care to the living and the dead—and the book she has written is equally extraordinary.

The Dead Still Cry Out,Helen Lewis (Text Publishing)

An extraordinary true story about the author’s father, Mike Lewis, a British paratrooper and combat cameraman who filmed the liberation of Bergen-Belsen.

Eggshell Skull,Bri Lee (Allen & Unwin)

Bri Lee began her first day of work at the Queensland District Court as a bright-eyed judge's associate. Two years later she was back as the complainant in her own case. This is the story of Bri's journey through the Australian legal system; first as the daughter of a policeman, then as a law student, and finally as a judge's associate in both metropolitan and regional Queensland-where justice can look very different, especially for women.

Call of the Reed Warbler,Charles Massy (The University of Queensland Press)

In this ground-breaking book Charles Massy explores regenerative agriculture and the vital connection between our soil and our health.  Using his personal farming experience as a touchstone, he tells the real story behind industrial agriculture and the global profit-obsessed corporations driving it. He shows how innovative farmers are finding a new way, regenerating their land and witnessing astounding transformations. Charles has authored several books on the Australian sheep industry including the widely acclaimed Breaking the Sheep’s Back.

The Suitcase Baby, Tanya Bretherton (Hachette Australia)

In the early hours of Saturday morning, 17 November 1923, a suitcase containing a dead infant was found washed up on the shore of a small beach in Mosman. Police tracked down Sarah Boyd, the mother, and the complex story and subsequent murder trial of Sarah and her friend Jean Olliver became a media sensation. Sociologist Tanya Bretherton masterfully tells the engrossing and moving story of the crime that put Sarah and her baby at the centre of a social tragedy that still resonates through the decades.

The Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award is 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.

Media inquiries: Debbie McInnes, dmcprmedia, 02 9550 9207 or debbie@dmcpr.com.au

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