National Biography Award
For a published work of biographical or autobiographical writing.
The National Biography Award was established in 1996 to encourage the highest standards of writing biography and autobiography and to promote public interest in those genres. The National Biography Award is administered by the State Library of New South Wales on behalf of the award's benefactors, Geoffrey Cains and Michael Crouch.
| Conditions of entry | PDF version | RTF version |
| Application form | PDF version | RTF version |
Papers
National Biography Award lecture
2007 (October)
Inga Clendinnen Biography: The impossible art?
2006 (March)
Robyn Archer, Materials for life
National Biography Award lecture
2005 (September)
David Williamson, Personal drama: David Williamson on self depiction
National Biography Award lecture
2004 (October)
Peter Porter, The observed of all observers; biography in poetry.
National Biography Award Lecture:
3 April 2003
Peter Rose, Goethe's two left feet: Reflections on the hazards and liberties of biography
National Biography Award 2002 day of discussion:
23 March 2002
F(l)ame & Glory - Session 1
F(l)ame & Glory - Session 2
F(l)ame & Glory - Session 3
Previous winners
2008
Philip Dwyer for Napoleon, London, Bloomsbury, 2007.
Graham Seal for These Few Lines, Sydney, ABC Books, 2006.
2007
Jacob Rosenberg for East of Time, Brandl & Schlesinger.
2006
John Hughes for The idea of home, Sydney, Giramondo.
2005
Robert Hillman for The Boy in the Green Suit, Melbourne, Scribe Publications.
2004
Barry Hill for Broken Song T.G.H. Strehlow and Aboriginal Possession, Sydney, Random House.
2003 Joint winners
Peter Rose for The Rose boys, Sydney, Allen and Unwin, 2001, and
Don Watson, Recollections of a bleeding heart : a portrait of Paul Keating PM, Sydney, Random House, 2002.
2002
Jacqueline Kent for A certain style: Beatrice Davis, a literary life, Ringwood, Victoria, Viking.
2000 Joint winners
Peter Robb for M, a biography of European painter Caravaggio, Sydney, Duffy & Snellgrove, and
Mandy Sayer for Dreamtime Alice: a memoir, Milson's Point, NSW, Vintage.
1998
Roberta Sykes for Snake cradle, St Leonards, NSW, Allen & Unwin.
1996
Abraham Biderman for The world of my past, Melbourne, Victoria, AHB Publications.
Note: The State Library took over administration of the NBA in 1998.
It was awarded every two years until 2002 when the award became annual.
