Ann-Marie Priest wins the 2024 Magarey Medal for Biography
Congratulations to our 2017 Fellow, Ann-Marie Priest, who has won another award for her biography of Australian poet Gwen Harwood, My Tongue is My Own: A Life of Gwen Harwood (La Trobe University Press/Black Inc, 2022). As well as the 2023 National Biography Award, Ann-Marie has now won the 2024 Magarey Medal for Biography. Others on the shortlist were Meg Foster (Boundary Crossers: The Hidden History of Australia’s Other Bushrangers), Kate Fullagar (Bennelong & Phillip: A History Unravelled), Jillian Graham (Inner Song: A Biography of Margaret Sutherland) and Brigitta Olubas (Shirley Hazzard: A Writing Life).
The Magarey Medal is jointly administered by the Australian Historical Association (AHA) and the Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL). It is awarded biennally for the best biography written by a female author about an Australian subject and published in the previous two years. It balances the football Magarey medal with one for female scholarly writing. This medal was established in 2005 by Emerita Professor Susan Magarey from the University of Adelaide.
You can listen to Ann-Marie talking about her biography in an interview in June 2024 with Gabriella Kelly-Davies for her podcast series Biographers in Conversation.
Frank Moorhouse book shortlisted
In great news, Matthew Lamb’s book Frank Moorhouse: Strange Paths has been shortlisted for The Age Book of the Year 2024, in the non-fiction category. The winner will be announced on 8 May on the opening night of the Melbourne Writers Festival. Matthew was interviewed in April 2024 by Gabriella Kelly-Davies for her podcast series Biographers in Conversation.
2024 Hazel Rowley Fellowship winner
The winner of the 2024 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship, worth $20,000, is Kate Fullagar, who is writing a biography of Marguerite Wolters, a Dutch woman who was a spy mistress to empires and revolutionists in the 18th century. Marguerite Wolter’s intelligence to the British contributed significantly to their decision in 1786 to build a penal colony in NSW.
The announcement on 13 March at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne followed a discussion between Adolfo Aranjuez and Mandy Sayer, our 2021 Fellow, about her biography Those Dashing McDonagh Sisters: Australia’s first female filmmaking team.
More information about our 2024 winner can be found on our Fellowship page.
New book from one of our shortlisted writers
Congratulations to Madelaine Dickie, who we shortlisted for the 2020 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship for her biography of Nyikina man Wayne Bergmann. Wayne and Madelaine have co-written Some People Want to Shoot Me. It has just been published by Fremantle Press.
Wayne Bergmann is a Nyikina leader, a boilermaker welder and a lawyer. He is a former Chief Executive of the Kimberley Land Council and is famous for negotiating a $1.5 billion compensation package for Traditional Owners over a controversial gas plant at James Price Point north of Broome. His story is particularly relevant in the wake of the failed Voice to Parliament referendum. Wayne has received death threats and his family has been deeply affected by his work fighting for the rights of Traditional Owners. His is an electrifying tale of resilience, determination and optimism, which shows what it takes to be an Aboriginal person walking in two cultures in a country where racism runs deep.
For more information and to order a copy, go to the Fremantle Press website.
Frank Moorhouse biography published
We are incredibly pleased to announce that Volume one of a two-volume biography of Frank Moorhouse by Matthew Lamb, our 2016 Fellow, has just been released. Frank Moorhouse: Strange Paths is published by Knopf, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
Matthew has recently published an article in a Friday Essay for the Conversation where he discusses in detail how a biographer balances storytelling with a search for the truth. He talks compellingly about the complications and dilemmas a biographer faces – for example, what to do when the ‘legend’ conflicts with the facts, and how to avoid letting a friendship with your subject cloud your understanding of him as a biographical subject. Matthew also has a Substack newsletter where he has launched an occasional series on the ongoing project of writing Frank Moorhouse’s life, including reflections on the art of biography, literary culture and democracy (Public Things).
You can read reviews of Matthew’s book on The Guardian website, the Books+Publishing website and Inside Story website.
We congratulate Matthew on this magnificent book and urge you to buy a copy.
Ann-Marie Priest wins the 2023 National Biography Award
We are immensely pleased to announce that Ann-Marie Priest, our 2017 Fellow, has won the National Biography Award for her biography of Australian poet Gwen Harwood, My Tongue is My Own: A Life of Gwen Harwood (La Trobe University Press/Black Inc, 2022). This is the first biography of Gwen Harwood, one of Australia’s finest poets. The judges were unanimous in their praise of Ann-Marie’s research, scholarship and analysis, describing it as a ‘perceptive’ and ‘creative’ biography. Huge congratulations to Ann-Marie for a well-deserved win. We’re so proud to have played a part in supporting her work.
National Library Canberra acquires Hazel Rowley Papers
We have some exciting news for researchers and biographers.
Hazel Rowley lodged her Papers in relation to her Christina Stead biography with the National Library of Australia (NLA) back in 1996. The NLA has now acquired the rest of Hazel’s Papers in relation to her biographies of Richard Wright (2001), Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre (2006), and Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt (2010). They have also acquired her Papers in relation to her essays and her other writing.
The NLA was very pleased to acquire the collection. It includes an original letter of Simone de Beauvoir and original letters of Christina Stead. The Papers are catalogued under the heading Papers of Hazel Rowley. For more information about Hazel Rowley and her writing, go to our Hazel Rowley page.
