Nib Literary Award 2025 longlist announced

The longlist for the 2025 Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award, worth $40,000, has been announced.

The longlisted titles are:

• Australian Gospel (Lech Blaine, Black Inc.)
• Black Convicts: How Slavery Shaped Australia (Santilla Chingaipe, Scribner)
• The Ancients (Andrew Darby, A&U)
• Theory & Practice (Michelle de Kretser, Text)
• Max Dupain (Helen Ennis, Fourth Estate)
• Dirrayawadha (Anita Heiss, S&S)
• Always Home, Always Homesick (Hannah Kent, Picador)
• Slick (Royce Kurmelovs, UQP)
• Wild Dark Shore (Charlotte McConaghy, Penguin)
• Melanesia (Hamish McDonald, Black Inc.)
• Black Witness (Amy McQuire, UQP)
• Mean Streak (Rick Morton, Fourth Estate)
• The Lasting Harm (Lucia Osborne-Crowley, A&U)
• Cactus Pear for My Beloved (Samah Sabawi, Penguin)
• The Good Daughter (Kumi Taguchi, Scribner)
• Clever Men (Martin Thomas, A&U)
• I Am Nannertgarrook (Tasma Walton, Bundyi)
• Naku Dharuk The Bark Petitions (Clare Wright, Text).

The Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award, known as ‘the Nib’, is presented by Sydney’s Waverley Council. The award ‘celebrates the most compelling research-based literature published annually’, under the criteria of literary merit, quality research, readability, and value to the community.

This year’s judging panel included writer, editor and arts producer Lliane Clarke, publisher and editor Julia Carlomagno, and author and publishing professional Angela Meyer, who assessed the 174 submissions for the award. Said Clarke, ‘For me, the works that stand out take the reader on an unexpected learning and revelatory journey – where we learn something new about the world and our own soul.’

A shortlist will be announced on 9 September, with each of the six finalists to receive the $1500 Alex Buzo Shortlist Prize. Winners of the Nib People’s Choice Prize ($4000) and the overall Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award ($40,000) will then be announced on 6 November.

Last year’s prize was awarded to Melissa Lucashenko for her novel Edenglassie (UQP).

Category: Awards Local news