Matthew Lamb shortlisted for National Biography Award
We are thrilled to announce that our 2016 Fellow, Matthew Lamb has been shortlisted for the 2025 National Biography Award for his book Frank Moorhouse: Strange Paths (Knopf, 2023). The winner will be announced in late July 2025.
The State Library of NSW, who administers the award, is holding a Meet the Shortlist event at the library on Saturday 16 August 2025.
2025 Hazel Rowley Fellowship winner
Della Rowley, Michelle Staff
The winner of the 2025 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship, worth $20,000, is Michelle Staff, who is writing a joint biography of influential feminist activists and sisters Bessie Rischbieth and Olive Evans (née Earle). Born in late 19th century South Australia, both sisters married and moved to Western Australia around the turn of the century. Although they led different lives, with Bessie becoming a childless but wealthy widow who travelled the world to promote women’s rights and Olive a mother of six who stayed in Perth working for similar causes, they shared similar interests and values. Bessie established an Australia-wide feminist organisation, the Australian Federation of Women Voters, and Olive was especially active in the Women’s Service Guilds of Western Australia. With a strong personal relationship that extended into their activist work, both played significant if differently recognised roles in Australian feminist history.
This year the judges also gave Highly Commended awards to Monique Rooney and Jennifer Martin. Monique is writing a biography of New Zealand-born Australian writer Ruth Park and Jennifer is writing a biography of Australian journalist Eva Sommer, inaugural winner of the Walkley Award.
The announcement on 5 March at Adelaide Writers’ Week followed a discussion between Geordie Williamson and Matthew Lamb, our 2016 Fellow, about his biography Frank Moorhouse: Strange Paths (Knopf, 2023).
More information about our 2025 recipients can be found on our Fellowship page.
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.
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.
