Status: Closed for entries, winner announced.
Total Prize money: $10,000
Dates: 28 October 2024 – 28 January 2025, 11:59 pm AEST
Judges: Georgina Arnott, Theodore Ell, and Geordie Williamson
Australian Book Review is delighted to announce that Jeanette Mrozinski has won the 2025 Calibre Essay Prize for her essay, ‘Eucharist’, becoming the first American writer to win the prestigious award. Now in its nineteenth year, the Calibre Essay Prize is well established as one of the world’s leading prizes for an unpublished essay. Judges Georgina Arnott (new Editor and CEO of ABR), Theodore Ell (2021 Calibre winner), and Geordie Williamson (Deputy Chair of ABR) chose ‘Eucharist’ from a field of 648 entries from 26 countries. This year’s runner-up is ‘The Chirp/The Scream’, by Melbourne writer Natasha Sholl (who was also runner-up in 2024), and third prize goes to South Australia-based writer Robin Boord for ‘Consolation of Clouds’. Andra Putnis was commended for her essay ‘The Art and Atrocity of Disaster Scenarios’. The winning essay is published today in the May issue of ABR, and the second and third-prize-winning essays will appear in the subsequent two issues.
The judges said this about Mrozinski’s winning essay:
‘Eucharist’, an essay of breathtaking emotional power and moral force, conveys a woman’s quest to obtain an anti-viral drug within seventy two hours of being raped to avert the risk of contracting HIV. As the crucial minutes tick away and our protagonist rushes to yet another pharmacy, we observe the grim realities of America’s health system for those facing hard choices around unaffordable, unattainable pharmaceuticals. The essay depicts ordinary, everyday distress in today’s America.
On winning the Calibre Essay Prize, Jeanette Mrozinski said:
Often, the working-class stories that make it into our literature are treated as outsider art, their value appraised by their shocking degrees of desperation and humiliation that, for millions, is simply the chronic dramatic tension of everyday survival. Our world is increasingly ruled by autocrats and oligarchs. We face interconnected democratic, economic, and environmental crises that transcend international borders, threatening to make life harder for us all. In this desperate hour, I am truly honoured to be selected as the first American to win the Calibre Essay Prize, and so deeply heartened to know that ABR readers are engaging with this story of individual and collective action.
The shortlist for the 2025 Calibre Essay Prize is as follows (in alphabetical order by essayist):
Anneke Bender (USA) | ‘Tracing Threads’
Robin Boord (SA) | ‘Consolation of Clouds’ (Third)
Chris Ellinger (Vic) | ‘Inner World Supertramp’
Kate Fullagar (ACT) | ‘The Painting’
Adam Gottschalk (ACT) | ‘Empty Chairs at Full Tables’
Taralyn Honson (UK) | ‘Sick Enough’
Kelly Ana Morey (NZ) | ‘Biography’
Jeanette Mrozinski (USA) | ‘Eucharist’ (Winner)
Andra Putnis (ACT) | ‘The Art and Atrocity of Disaster Scenarios’ (Commended)
Natasha Sholl (Vic) | ‘The Chirp/The Scream’ (Second)
Sarah Walker (Vic) | ‘Piscine’
Dominic Warshaw (USA) | ‘Grafting Figs’
Past winners
Click the link for more information about past winners and to read their essays.
FAQs and Terms and Conditions
Please read our Frequently Asked Questions before contacting us with queries about the Calibre Prize.
Before entering the Calibre Essay Prize, all entrants must read the Terms and Conditions.
Exclusivity
Entries may be submitted elsewhere during the judging of the Calibre Prize. If the essay(s) are longlisted by ABR, the entrant will have 24 hours to decide if they wish to withdraw their essay elsewhere or from the Calibre Prize. Exclusivity is essential for longlisted essays, and we require confirmation of such for all longlisted essays.
The overall winning essay will be published in the first half of 2025, followed by the runners-up.
Entry fees
Current ABR subscribers: $20
Standard/non subscribers: $30*
*All non-subscribers will automatically receive four-month digital access to ABR free of charge.
Entry + subscription bundles
Entry + 1-year digital subscription: $100
Entry + 1-year print subscription (Australia): $130
Entry + 1-year print subscription (NZ and Asia): $220
Entry + 1-year print subscription (Rest of World): $240
Those who purchase a subscription while entering will be able to submit subsequent entries at the subscriber rate ($20).
ABR thanks founding Patrons Mary-Ruth Sindrey and Peter McLennan for their continuing support for the Calibre Essay Prize.
