Waverley Council is delighted to announce
the longlist for this year’s Mark and Evette Moran
Nib Literary Award 

Australian writers and their publishers from around the country and overseas submitted a record 239 entries for this year’s Mark & Evette Moran Literary Award, now offering a $40,000 major prize. This year’s judges, poet Jamie Grant, writer and novelist Katerina Cosgrove, and publisher Julia Carlomagno, congratulated the longlisted authors, commending them for excelling amid a strong field of nominations.

The judges said: 
We are delighted with the fierce creativity and originality of the long-listed authors, with their unflinching research and evocative prose. Many of the long-listed books not only match but surpass our award guidelines, ranging from introspective, deeply felt works, to impassioned examinations of historical, social, and contemporary cultural issues to innovative narratives of family dynamics and hidden worlds. Combined, they give us a vivid picture of Australia and beyond. 

The 2023 longlist is:

An Intimate History of Evolution: The Story of the Huxley Family by Alison Bashford (Allen Lane)
One Illumined Thread by Sally Colin-James (Harper Collins)
My Giddy Aunt and her sister comedians by Sharon Connolly (Upswell Publishing)
We Come with This Place by Debra Dank (Echo Publishing)
Anam by André Dao (Hamish Hamilton)
Emperors in Lilliput by Jim Davidson (The Miegunyah Press)
The Bell of the World by Gregory Day (Transit Lounge)
Reckless by Marele Day (Ultimo Press)
The Great Dead Body Teacher by Jackie Dent (Ultimo Press)
​​​​​​​The Plant Thieves: Secrets of the herbariumby Prudence Gibson (NewSouth)
Aphrodite’s Breath by Susan Johnson (Allen & Unwin) ​​​​​​​

Ghosts of the Orphanage by Christine Kenneally (Hachette Australia)
Staging a Revolution: When Betty Rocked the Pram by Kath Kenny (Upswell Publishing)
Graft by Maggie MacKellar (Hamish Hamilton)
The Age of Seeds by Fiona McMillian-Webster (Thames & Hudson Australia)
Life So Full of Promise: further biographies of Australia’s lost generation by Ross McMullin
(Scribe Publications)
Shirley Hazzard: A Writing Life by Brigitta Olubas (Virago)
The One Thing We’ve Never Spoken About: Exposing Our Untold Mental Health Crisis
by Elfy Scott (Pantera Press)
Political Lives: Australian prime ministers and their biographers by Chris Wallace
(UNSW Press)
The Passion of Private White by Don Watson (Scribner Australia)