The Shortlist: People's Choice Award 2023
The inaugural University of Sydney People's Choice Award is sponsored by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences as part of its recognition and support for a vibrant and thriving arts and literary culture in Australia. The award offers a cash prize of $5000, and the winner is voted for by readers who are residents of NSW from the fiction and nonfiction shortlists of the Premier's Literary Awards.
Dr Beth Yahp
"Literature is for everyone," said Dr Beth Yahp, Director of the Master of Creative Writing in the School of Art, Communication and English, and Chair of the 2023 judges' panel of the NSW Premier's Christina Stead Award for Fiction.
"Literature belongs to readers and writers, as well as judges and critics," Dr Yahp said. "It's wonderful that this award continues to offer readers the opportunity to discover new books and choose their favourite, while the new sponsorship enables the winning author to continue writing - or have a rest if that's what they need."
NSW Premier's Literary Awards
The People's Choice Award is chosen from the nominees in the Fiction and Non-Fiction categories of the NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2023.
Among Australia's richest and most prestigious awards for writers, illustrators and translators, the NSW Premier's Literary Awards is administered by the State Library of New South Wales. Established in 1979, the purpose of the awards, according to then Premier Neville Wran, was for the arts "to take their proper place in our social priorities. If governments treat writers and artists with respect and understanding, the community will be more likely to do the same."
