Shortlist announced for Australia's richest biography & memoir prize

State Library of NSW

The memoirs of Helen Garner, David Williamson AO, Amani Haydar and Lech Blaine, along with biographies of some of Australia's best-known writers, have been shortlisted for the 2022 National Biography Award, Australia's richest prize for biographical and memoir writing, the State Library of NSW announced TODAY [13 July 2022].

The shortlisted works, selected from 109 entries are:

Car Crash: A Memoir by Lech Blaine (Black Inc. Books)
Leaping into Waterfalls: The enigmatic Gillian Mears by Bernadette Brennan (Allen & Unwin)
One Day I'll Remember This: Diaries 1987–1995 by Helen Garner (Text Publishing)
The Mother Wound by Amani Haydar (Pan Macmillan Australia)
Into the Loneliness: The unholy alliance of Ernestine Hill and Daisy Bates by Eleanor Hogan (NewSouth)
Home Truths: A Memoir by David Williamson AO (HarperCollins Publishers)

Senior Judge, Suzanne Falkiner commented: "This year's entries offered an exciting diversity of subjects and styles, ranging from sensitive personal memoirs to deeply researched historical biographies. This made the task of reducing the longlist to a shortlist extremely difficult."

Once again, due to a high proportion of accomplished works by debut authors, the judges have selected three Highly Commended titles:

Muddy People: A Memoir by Sara El Sayed (Black Inc. Books)
Black and Blue: a memoir of racism and resilience by Veronica Gorrie (Scribe Publications)
Mother and I: The Fable of a Wilful Family by Ianto Ware (Hunter Publishers)

The winner will be announced in August.

See the full media release and publicity image attached.

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