NSW Premier's Awards

The NSW Premier’s Literary Awards & NSW Premier’s History Awards

The NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and the Premier’s History Awards are an important and integral part of the State’s cultural activity. On 5 April the NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell announced that the awards will be reinvigorated and strengthened, following a recent review.

These Awards are presented by the NSW Government and managed by the State Library of NSW in association with Arts NSW.

2013 NSW Premier's Literary Awards

The works of great living Australian writers have been recognised with the announcement of the winners of the 2013 NSW Premier's Literary Awards.

Established in 1979, the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards have recognised hundreds of talented Australian writers: novelists, poets, playwrights, scriptwriters, translators, and authors of non-fiction and children’s books. With prizes totalling up to $315,000, they are among the nation’s richest and most prestigious literary awards.

This year’s winners were announced at a glittering celebration held on the eve of the Sydney Writers’ Festival in the historic Mitchell Library Reading Room.

View the winners and shortlist

NSW Premier's Literary Awards Address

The first adress was delivered in 1980 by Donald Horne, and he’s been followed by an range of speakers, including Manning Clark, Frank Moorhouse, Elizabeth Jolley, Faith Bandler, Robyn Archer, Peter Singer, Neil Armfield and Anita Heiss.

Dr Kathryn Heyman delivered the 2013 NSW Premier's Literary Awards address.

Kathryn is the author of five novels, published internationally, including The Accomplice and Captain Starlight's Apprentice. She has won the Arts Council of England Writers Award, the Hallam International Poetry Prize, the Wingate and the Southern Arts Awards in the UK, and been nominated for numerous awards in Australia and overseas.

Her essays and feature articles have been widely anthologised and her dramatic works include That’s the Way to Do It, nominated for the Edinburgh Fringe Critic’s Awards, as well as several radio plays for the BBC.

Kathryn taught Creative Writing for the University of Oxford, is the Program Director for Faber Academy in Australia and mentors emerging writers in the UK and Australia. For the past two years, Kathryn has been the Senior Judge for the NSW Premier's Literary Awards.

Read Dr Kathyrn Heyman's Address