Riveting reads selected: Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Nib Award longlist released

Award judges Jamie Grant (poet), Julia Carlomagno (publisher and award-winning editor), and Angela Meyer (author and publishing professional) noted the diversity of subject matter and genres represented in this year’s 175 submissions.

Ms Meyer said she was impressed by the calibre of submissions in her first year of judging the award.

“It was difficult to narrow down the selection but the books that kept me coming back absolutely thrilled me – books with considered structures, compelling and appropriate styles, and discoveries on every page,” she said.

“I was struck by the generosity of the authors of these projects, in shaping and sharing them with us: the years of research and writing, their passion and focus, and often their resilience and positivity even when faced with grim subject matter.”  

A shortlist of six finalists will be announced on 17 September 2024, with each to receive the Alex Buzo Shortlist Prize ($1,500). Winners of the $4,000 Nib People’s Choice Prize and the $40,000 Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award will be announced on 27 November 2024.

The Mark & Evette Moran Nib Literary Award is administered by Waverley Council with the generous support of Principal Sponsors Mark and Evette Moran, and the ongoing commitment of community partner Gertrude and Alice Bookshop and Café.

The 2024 longlist is:

• Because I'm Not Myself, You See by Ariane Beeston (Black Inc)

• Reaching Through Time by Shauna Bostock (Allen & Unwin)

• Datsun Angel by Anna Broinowski (Hachette Australia)

• My Brilliant Sister by Amy Brown (Scribner Australia)

• Book of Life by Deborah Conway (Allen & Unwin)

• Donald Horne by RyanCropp (La Trobe University Press)

• Bennelong and Phillip: A History Unravelled by Kate Fullagar (Scribner Australia)

• Wifedom by Anna Funder (Hamish Hamilton)

• Alice ™ The biggest untold story in the history of money byStuart Kells  
  (Melbourne University Press)

• Frank Moorhouse: Strange Paths by Matthew Lamb (Knopf)

• Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko (University of Queensland Press)

• Crimes of the Cross byAnne Manne (Black Inc.)

• Killing for Country by David Marr (Black Inc.)

• Wear Next by Clare Press (Thames & Hudson Australia)

• A Very Secret Trade by Cassandra Pybus (Allen & Unwin)

• Transgender Australia - A History since 1910 by Noah Riseman  
  (Melbourne University Press)

• What the Trees See: A Wander Through Millennia of Natural History in Australia
  by Dave Witty (Monash University Publishing)

Previous winners include Tim Low, Helen Garner, Gideon Haigh, Clare Wright and Delia Falconer. The 2023 award was won by historian Alison Bashford for her book An Intimate History of Evolution (Allen Lane).