NSW Premier’s History Awards 2021 winners announced

The State Library of NSW (SLNSW) has announced the winners of the 2021 NSW Premier’s History Awards, worth $15,000 each.

Selected from shortlists announced in August, the winning titles in each category are:

Australian History Prize

• People of the River: Lost worlds of early Australia (Grace Karskens, A&U)

General History Prize

• The Wardian Case: How a simple box moved plants and changed the world (Luke Keogh, The University of Chicago Press)

NSW Community and Regional History Prize 

• Landscapes of Our Hearts: Reconciling people and environment (Matthew Colloff, Thames & Hudson)

Young People’s History Prize

• Tell Me Why for Young Adults (Archie Roach, S&S)

Digital History Prize 

• FREEMAN (Laurence Biliet, General Strike and Matchbox Pictures).

Senior judge Matthew Allen said each of this year’s winning books are ‘outstanding works of history that deserve a wide audience’.

NSW State Librarian John Vallance commented, ‘It’s not often that historical writing goes beyond what we expect, and challenges us, without being relentlessly didactic, to think about our futures before we have to live in them. In their own ways, all this year’s winners do just that.’

The winners were announced in an online ceremony on Friday, 3 September. For more information, see the SLNSW website.

Category: Awards Local news