Announcing the Fifth Calibre Prize


FIRST PRIZE: $10,000

CLOSING DATE: 10 DECEMBER 2010

 ENTRY FORM

‘What a wonderful thing is the essay! All honour to Australian Book Review and the Cultural Fund of Copyright Agency Limited for celebrating it with the Calibre Prize.’
Robert Dessaix

Australian Book Review (ABR) and the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) seek entries for the fifth Calibre Prize for an Outstanding Essay, the nation’s premier award for an original essay and one of the world’s most lucrative essay competitions.

The Calibre Prize is intended to generate brilliant new essays and to foster new insights into culture, society and the human condition. We welcome essays from leading authors and commentators, but also from emerging writers. All non-fiction subjects are eligible: from life writing to literary studies, history to politics, biography to philosophy, natural history to popular science, travel writing to environmental studies.

 CALIBRE PRIZE 2011 MEDIA RELEASE  

Past winners

2007

Elisabeth Holdsworth: 'An die Nachgenborenen: For Those Who Come After'   DOWNLOAD ESSAY

2008

Rachel Robertson: 'Reaching One Thousand'   DOWNLOAD ESSAY

Mark Tredinnick: 'A Storm and a Teacup'   DOWNLOAD ESSAY

2009

Kevin Brophy: ‘“What’re yer looking at yer fuckin’ dog”: Violence and Fear in Žižek’s Post-political Neighbourhood’   DOWNLOAD ESSAY

Jane Goodall: 'Footprints'   DOWNLOAD ESSAY

2010

Lorna Hallahan: 'On being Odd'

David Hansen: 'Seeing Truganini'

Copies of the May 2010 issue in which Lorna Hallahan and David Hansen's essays appear are available for purchase from ABR. 

Phone: (03) 9429 6700

Purchase online here.

Eligibility

Essayists must reside in Australia or be Australian citizens living overseas.

Essays can range from 3000–10,000 words.

Important Dates

Entries close December 10, 2010.

ABR will announce the results in early 2011, and will publish the winning essay, along with other shortlisted essays.

Calibre 2010 Event

The winners of the 2010 Calibre Prize were announced at the conclusion of a day-long symposium on the art of essay writing – Essaying: The Calibre Prize – held at the National Library of Australia on Friday, April 30, 2010.

Robert Dessaix was the keynote speaker. The five previous Calibre winners will all speak: Kevin Brophy, Jane Goodall, Elisabeth Holdsworth, Rachel Robertson and Mark Tredinnick.

Robert Dessaix (top centre) with six of the seven Calibre Prize winners, at the National Library of Australia, following the symposium Essay: The Calibre Prize, on 30 April. From the left: Brian Johns (Director, Copyright Agency Limited), Lorna Hallahan (joint 2010 winner), David Hansen (2010), Rachel Robertson (2008), Elisabeth Holdsworth (2007), Mark Treddinnick (2008), Jane Goodall (2009), Morag Fraser (Chairperson, ABR) and Peter Rose (Editor, ABR). Photographer: Loui Seselja (courtesy of the National Library).

Lorna Hallahan (joint 2010 winner). Photographer: Loui Seselja (courtesy of the National Library).

David Hansen (joint 2010 winner). Photographer: Loui Seselja (courtesy of the National Library).

Morag Fraser (Chairperson, ABR). Photographer: Loui Seselja (courtesy of the National Library).

Celebrating Calibre

‘How magnificent of Australian Book Review and CAL to provide a forum for writers to reflect, to stretch their powers, to surprise themselves. The greatest surprise of all is how quickly the Calibre has become part of the literary firmament of this country.’
Ms Elisabeth Holdsworth, winner of the 2007 Calibre Prize

‘I have been amazed by the wide number of people who have seen the essay, commented to me about it, and as a result become aware of CAL. Prizes for this kind of writing are rare, and prizes with such a significant cash amount attached are even more rare. It is certainly the case that I would not have worked so hard on my essay at the time if it had not been for my awareness of the prize, and its prestige.’
Dr Kevin Brophy, co-winner of the 2009 Calibre Prize

‘Every year the Calibre runs, much is learned about the craft of the essay by many people, simply through its practice. It’s a craft that makes stringent demands, and tackling them does something to the language itself. A culture of essay-writing stretches language, finding new kinds of flexibility and resonance. The Calibre is a prize that’s not just about winners. It’s about that culture, as a continuing formative influence in literature and journalism.’
Professor Jane Goodall, co-winner of the 2009 Calibre Prize

'This is a note to congratulate you on the quality of the latest Calibre Prize essays, by Jane Goodall and Kevin Brophy, in the April edition of ABR. The two pieces maintain the incredibly high standards of the Prize, of which I was honoured to be an inaugural judge.'
Dr Imre Salusinszky, former Chair, Australia Council Literature Board

'The Calibre Prize for Outstanding Essay is an exemplary literary award. There are many prizes for poetry and fiction, but the essay, which has become increasingly prominent in recent years, is given far less support ... I hope the Calibre Prize continues to thrive and be supported for many years to come.'
Dr David McCooey, Deakin University

‘No other publication for a wide readership provides a venue for writing of such length, style, sophistication and personal inflection. Indeed, the Calibre essay has grown into something of a subgenre of its own, bringing external biography or autobiography together with the life of the mind, so that intellectual engagement and speculation are experienced as integral to the existence and engaged citizenship of the author in today's world. I hope, as I'm sure do many others, that this fine tradition will continue, bringing kudos to both ABR and to CAL as its sponsor.’
Professor Nicholas Jose

SHORTLISTED ESSAYS in 2010

Lindsay Barrett: ‘The Shadow on the Steps’

Janene Carey: ‘Retreat to the Castle’

Eleanor Collins: ‘Ill-Timed Remarks: A Pathographical Essay’

Lorna Hallahan: ‘On Being Odd’

David Hansen: ‘Seeing Truganini’

Colin Nettelbeck: ‘Kneecapper: A Trip to Happiness’

Jessica White: ‘Hearing in Other Ways’

LONGLISTED ESSAYS in 2010

+ denotes the essay has been shortlisted.

AHMAD, Irfan, ‘Shared Horizon’

BARNES-BULLEY, Helen, ‘The Life of the Text’

+ BARRETT, Lindsay, ‘The Shadow on the Steps’

+ CAREY, Janene, ‘Retreat to the Castle’

CLODE, Danielle, ‘After the Fire’

+ COLLINS, Eleanor, 'Ill-Timed Remarks: A Pathographical Essay’

GROSSMAN, Michele, ‘We Are All Learners Now’

+ HALLAHAN, Lorna, ‘On Being Odd’

+ HANSEN, David, ‘Seeing Truganini’

HYLTON, Jane, ‘Solastalgia: A Water Story’

KANOWSKI, Sarah, ‘Whose Beauty is Past Change’

KHATUN, Samia, ‘Seclusion’

LING, Chek, ‘Move on, Move on!’

+ NETTELBECK, Colin, ‘Kneecapper: A Trip to Happiness’

O'REILLY, Helen, ‘Brooding on Sex: A Study of Marion Piddington'

PAUL, Bruce, ‘Stepping into the Unknown’

PIGGOTT, Michael, ‘The File on H’

RAMSON, Bill, ‘Timor Mortis Conturbat Me’

SLEZAK, Peter, ‘Identity and Responsibility: Lessons from Spinoza (or Confessions of a self-hating Jew’

+ WHITE, Jessica, ‘Hearing in Other Ways’