The Nib Literary Award: the shortlist is out!

You can vote for the People’s Choice award here until the 9 November.

Waverley Mayor Sally Betts has announced this year’s Alex Buzo Award shortlisted winners for the Nib: Waverley Library Award for Literature, which recognises excellence in research.

Mayor Betts thanked the judges for completing the mammoth job of reading all the entries and congratulated them for selecting such a fine set of works.

The judges said: “We were impressed with the variety, and the quality, of books nominated for this year’s award, and the shortlist reflects this impression, with subjects ranging in time from the prehistory of birds to present-day Kings Cross, and in place from the Great Barrier Reef to the goldfields of Ballarat. Choosing a winner from such a strong field will not be an easy task.”

The six shortlisted Alex Buzo Award winners include:

• Let the Land Speak: A history of Australia – how the land created our nation
  Jackie French
• Where Song Began: Australia’s birds and how they changed the world
  Tim Low
• The Reef: A passionate history. The Great Barrier Reef in twelve extraordinary tales
  Iain McCalman
• King’s Cross: A biography
  Louis Nowra
• Killing Fairfax: Packer, Murdoch and the ultimate revenge
  Pamela Williams
• The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka
  Clare Wright

The Alex Buzo Shortlist Prize was established in 2006 to honour his significant contribution to the award’s success.

“The award is in memory of his strong belief that there should be a wider recognition and rewarding of the worth of deserving Australian writers,” Mayor Betts said.

ABC’s Richard Glover will host the Nib Awards presentation, which will be held at the Margaret Whitlam Recreation Centre, on Wednesday, 26 November. At the Awards presentation the six shortlisted authors will all receive $1000 in prize money and the winner will win $20,000.

When: Wednesday 26th November

Where: Margaret Whitlam Recreation Centre

Cost: Free

Full details of the authors and the judges’ comments are available at waverley.nsw.gov.au/nib