Victorian Premier's Prize for Nonfiction
The Victorian Premier's Prize for Nonfiction, formerly known as the Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction, is a prize category in the annual Victorian Premier's Literary Award. As of 2011 it has a remuneration of A$25,000. The winner of this category prize vies with 4 other category winners for overall Victorian Prize for Literature valued at an additional A$100,000.
The prize was formerly known as the Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction from inception until 2010 when the awards were re-established under the stewardship of the Wheeler Centre and restarted with new prize amounts and a new name. The Nettie Palmer Prize was valued at A$30,000 in 2010. According to the State Library of Victoria which managed the prize from 1997 to 2010, "This prize is offered for a published work of non-fiction. Books consisting principally of photographs or illustrations are ineligible unless the accompanying text is of substantial length."[1] Palmer wrote regularly for numerous newspapers all round Australia. She wrote on a wide range of topics, from environment to cultural events, reviewing all important books being published in Australia, America, Europe and elsewhere.
Victorian Premier's Prize for Nonfiction
Blue ribbon () = winner.
- 2011[2]
Mark McKenna, An Eye for Eternity: The Life Of Manning Clark
- Stephen Foster, A Private Empire
- Cordelia Fine, Delusions of Gender
- Fiona Capp, My Blood’s Country
- Anna Krien, Into the Woods
- Tim Bonyhady, Good Living Street
- 2012[3]
Bill Gammage, The Biggest Estate on Earth
- Simon Leys, The Hall of Uselessness
- Alice Pung, Her Father's Daughter
- Kerryn Goldsworthy, Adelaide
- James Boyce, 1835: The Founding of Melbourne & The Conquest of Australia
- Brenda Niall, True North: The Story of Mary and Elizabeth Durack
- 2013 No award due to timing change - the next awards were presented in January 2014 for books published in 2013.
- 2014[4]
Henry Reynolds, Forgotten War
- Robert Kenny, Gardens of Fire: An Investigative Memoir
- Germaine Greer, White Beech
- Kristina Olsson, Boy, Lost: A Family Memoir
- Helen Trinca, Madeleine: A Life of Madeleine St John
- Gideon Haigh, On Warne
- NPY Women's Council, Commended: Traditional Healers of Central Australia: Ngangkari
- 2015
Alan Atkinson, The Europeans in Australia: Volume Three: Nation (NewSouth)
- Erik Jensen, Acute Misfortune: The Life and Death of Adam Cullen (Black Inc.)[5]
- Tess Lea, Darwin (NewSouth)
- Tim Low, Where Song Began (Penguin)
- Julie Szego, The Tainted Trial of Farah Jama (Wild Dingo Press)
- Don Watson, The Bush (Penguin)
- 2016
Gerald Murnane, Something for the Pain (Text Publishing)
- Lesley Harding and Kendrah Morgan, Modern Love: The Lives of John and Sunday Reed (MUP)
- Karen Lamb, Thea Astley: Inventing Her Own Weather (UQP)
- George Megalogenis, Australia’s Second Chance (Penguin)
- Drusilla Modjeska, Second Half First (Knopf)
- Brenda Niall, Mannix (Text Publishing)
- 2017[6]
Madeline Gleeson, Offshore: Behind the wire on Manus and Nauru (NewSouth Publishing)
- Deng Adut with Ben Mckelvey, Songs of a War Boy (Hachette Australia)
- Maxine Beneba Clarke, The Hate Race (Hachette Australia)
- Sarah Ferguson with Patricia Drum, The Killing Season Uncut (Melbourne University Publishing)
- Kim Mahood, Position Doubtful (Scribe Publications)
- Arnold Zable, The Fighter (Text Publishing)
- 2018[7]
Sarah Krasnostein, The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman's Extraordinary Life in Death, Decay & Disaster (Text Publishing)
- Georgia Blain, The Museum of Words: A Memoir of Language, Writing and Mortality (Scribe Publications)
- Kate Cole-Adams, Anaesthesia: The Gift of Oblivion and the Mystery of Consciousness (Text Publishing)
- Mary-Rose MacColl, For a Girl: A True Story of Secrets, Motherhood and Hope (Allen & Unwin)
- Alexis Wright, Tracker (Giramondo)
- 2019[8][9]
Behrouz Boochani, No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison (Picador Australia)
- Jessie Cole, Staying: A Memoir
- Chloe Hooper, The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire
- Bri Lee, Eggshell Skull
- Sofija Stefanovic, Miss Ex-Yugoslavia
- Maria Tumarkin, Axiomatic
- 2020[10]
Christina Thompson, Sea People: The puzzle of Polynesia (HarperCollins)[11]
- Gay’wu Group of Women, Songspirals: Sharing women’s wisdom of country through songlines
- Chloe Higgins, The Girls
- Jess Hill, See What You Made Me Do: Power, control and domestic abuse
- Lizzie O’Shea, Future Histories: What Ada Lovelace, Tom Paine, and the Paris Commune can teach us about digital technology
- Archie Roach, Tell Me Why: The story of my life and my music
- 2021[12]
Paddy Manning, Body Count: How climate change is killing us[13]
- Margo Neale and Lynne Kelly, Songlines: The Power and Promise
- Kylie Maslen, Show Me Where It Hurts
- Louise Milligan, Witness: An investigation into the brutal cost of seeking justice
- Ellena Savage, Blueberries
- Victor Steffensen, Fire Country: How Indigenous fire management could help save Australia
Nettie Palmer Prize for Nonfiction
- 2010 Reading by Moonlight: How Books Saved a Life by Brenda Walker[14]
- 2009 The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island, Chloe Hooper (Hamish Hamilton)[15]
- 2008 The Ferocious Summer: Palmer's Penguins and the Warming of Antarctica by Meredith Hooper (Allen & Unwin)[16]
- 2007 Voyages to the South Seas: In Search of Terres Australes by Danielle Clode (The Miegunyah Press/Melbourne University Publishing)[17]
- 2006 Margaret Michaelis: Love, Loss and Photography by Helen Ennis (National Gallery of Australia)[18]
- 2005 Twilight of Love: Travels with Turgenev by Robert Dessaix (Picador/Pan Macmillan)[19]
- 2004 Car Wars: How the Car Won Our Hearts and Conquered Our Cities by Graeme Davison (Allen & Unwin)[20]
- 2003 Broken Song: T.G.H. Strehlow and Aboriginal Possession by Barry Hill (Knopf/Random House)[21]
- 2002 The Boyds: A Family Biography by Brenda Niall
- 2001 Broken Circles: Fragmenting Indigenous Families 1800-2000 by Anna Haebich
- 2000 The White by Adrian Caesar
- 1999 M: The Man Who Became Caravaggio by Peter Robb
- 1998 Romulus, My Father by Raimond Gaita
- 1997 Midnight in Sicily by Peter Robb
- 1996
- 1995 Georgiana: A Biography of Georgiana McCrae, Painter, Diarist, Pioneer by Brenda Niall
- 1994 Lyrebird Rising: Louise Hanson-Dyer of Oiseau-Lyre 1884-1962 by Jim Davidson
- 1993 Mr Bligh's Bad Language by Greg Dening
- 1992 Patrick White: A Life by David Marr
- 1991 Wild Card by Dorothy Hewett
- 1990 The Sixpenny Soldier by Roland Griffiths-Marsh
- 1989 Paradise Found and Lost by Oskar Spate
References
- State Library of Victoria
- "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2011". Victorian Premier's Literary Awards. 2011. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
- "21 big names. One big decision. Start reading". Victorian Premier's Literary Awards. 2012. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
- "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2014". Victorian Premier's Literary Awards. 2014. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
- Later the basis of the film Acute Misfortune
- "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2017". The Wheeler Centre. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
- "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2018". The Wheeler Centre. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
- "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2019 shortlists announced". Books+Publishing. 2018-12-12. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
- "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2019". The Wheeler Centre. Retrieved 2019-01-31.
- "2020 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards shortlists announced". Books+Publishing. 2019-12-02. Retrieved 2019-12-02.
- "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2020". The Wheeler Centre. Retrieved 2020-01-31.
- "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2021 shortlists announced". Books+Publishing. 2020-12-08. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
- "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2021". The Wheeler Centre. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
- "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2011: 2010 Winners & Shortlists". Victorian Premier's Literary Awards. 2010. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
- "Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction - 2009 Winner". Archived from the original on 2010-05-05. Retrieved 2010-04-05.
- Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction - 2008 Winner
- Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction - 2007 Winner
- Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction - 2006 Winner
- Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction - 2005 Winner
- Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction - 2004 Winner
- Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction - 2003 Winner