National Biography Award
The winner of the National Biography Award receives $25,000 in prize money 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 these genres.
The award is administered and presented by the State Library of New South Wales on behalf of the award's benefactors, Dr Geoffrey Cains and Mr Michael Crouch AO.
2012 winner
The Many Worlds of R. H. Mathews, In search of an Australian Anthropologist by historian
Martin Thomas has won the 2012 National Biography Award.
The portrayal of R. H. Matthews has brought to light the largely forgotten but immensely important contribution Mathews made to anthropology and Australia’s cultural history in the 19th century.
Martin Thomas
2012 SHORTLIST
From a longlist of 12 titles, 6 were selected for the 2012 shortlist.
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Tim Bonyhady Good Living Street: The Fortunes of My Viennese Family, Allen & Unwin
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A J Brown Michael Kirby: Paradoxes & Principles, The Federation Press
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Delia Falconer Sydney, NewSouth Publishing
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Paul Kelly How to Make Gravy, Penguin
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Mark McKenna An Eye for Eternity: The Life of Manning Clark, Melbourne University Publishing
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Martin Thomas The Many Worlds of R.H. Mathews: In Search of an Australian Anthropologist, Allen & Unwin
This year for the first time, shortlisted authors each received $1,000 prize money in recognition of their achievement in the field of biography. The prize for the winning author was also increased in 2012 from $20,000 to $25,000.
Chair of the Judging Panel Peter Rose said “the variety, calibre and sheer readability of the six shortlisted titles augur well for the ever-protean genre of Biography in the country, notwithstanding the many challenges currently facing authors and publishers. We learned so much from these books – about popular music, Australian history and anthropology, the politics and personalities of the judiciary, the character of our biggest capital city, and the huge personal toll for one family of the Nazi regime”.
2012 longlist
Twelve amazing stories were longlisted from a record 63 entries in the 2012 National Biography Award.
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Robyn Arianrhod Seduced by Logic, University of QLD Press
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Tim Bonyhady Good Living Street: The Fortunes of My Viennese Family, Allen & Unwin
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A J Brown Michael Kirby: Paradoxes & Principles, The Federation Press
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Pamela Burton From Moree to Mabo: The Mary Gaudron Story, UWA Publishing
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Sophie Cunningham Melbourne, NewSouth Publishing
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Delia Falconer Sydney, NewSouth Publishing
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John Howard Lazarus Rising, Harper Collins
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Paul Kelly How to Make Gravy, Penguin
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Mark McKenna An Eye for Eternity: The Life of Manning Clark, Melbourne University Publishing
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Martin Thomas The Many Worlds of R.H. Mathews: In Search of an Australian Anthropologist, Allen & Unwin
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David Walker Not Dark Yet, Giramondo Publishing
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Patrick Wilcken, Claude Levi-Strauss, Bloomsbury
More Information
Conditions of entry and application forms
Please contact Sara Fishwick, Senior Project Officer.
Websites of interest
Other State Library NSW Awards & Fellowships
State Library NSW media releases
National Biography Award wikipedia
Australian Book Review
