The Nib Literary Award, established in 2002 at the suggestion of actor and producer Chris Haywood, the Patron of the Friends of Waverley Library, as The Nib Waverley Library Award for Literature and since 2017 known as the Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award, is an Australian literary award for works in any genre, awarded annually at Waverley Library in Sydney. It is also known as 'The Nib': CAL Waverley Library Award for Literature.
Award Organised and supported by Waverley Council, the award recognises "excellence in literary research", and books in any genre and either non-fiction or fiction are considered for it. There are cash prizes for the winning and shortlisted books, with each of the shortlisted authors also earning the Alex Buzo Shortlist Prize.
In 2017, the Nib was renamed the Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award, and three new categories were added: the People's Choice, the Alex Buzo Shortlist Prize, and a Military History Prize.
In the 2019 Awards, there was a prize pool of : the main award , the Nib Military History Prize , Nib People's Choice Prize and the Alex Buzo Shortlist Prize, six prizes of . The main sponsors were Mark and Evette Moran of Vaucluse. , the main award is valued at , the People's Choice and shortlisted authors receive each.
Winners YearAuthorWorkPublisherRef.2002Tim LowThe New Nature Penguin 2003Barry Hill Broken Song: T. G. H. Strehlow and Aboriginal PossessionPenguin2004Geoffrey Blaney Black Kettle and Full Moon Penguin 2005Helen GarnerJoe Cinque's ConsolationPan Macmillan2006Gideon HaighAsbestos House: The Secret History of James Hardie IndustriesScribe2007John Bailey Mr. Stuart's Track: The Forgotten Life of Australia's Greatest ExplorerPan Macmillan2008Christopher KochThe Memory Room Penguin 2009Robert Gray The Land I Came Through Last Giramondo2010Andrew TinkWilliam Charles Wentworth: Australia's Greatest Native SonAllen & Unwin2011Delia FalconerSydneyNewSouth2012Jane Gleeson-WhiteDouble EntryAllen & Unwin2013Gideon HaighOn WarneHamish Hamilton2014Clare WrightThe Forgotten Rebels of EurekaText2015Erik JensenAcute MisfortuneBlack Inc.2016Rachel LandersWho Bombed the Hilton?NewSouth2017Kate Cole-AdamsAnaesthesia: The Gift of Oblivion and the Mystery of ConsciousnessText2018Helen LewisThe Dead Still Cry Out Text2019Nadia WheatleyHer Mother's DaughterText2020Rebecca GiggsFathomsScribe2021Luke StegemannAmnesia Road: Landscape, Violence and MemoryNewSouth2022Delia FalconerSigns and Wonders: Dispatches from a Time of Beauty and LossScribner2023Alison BashfordAn Intimate History of Evolution: The Story of the Huxley FamilyAllen Lane2024Melissa LucashenkoEdenglassieUniversity of Queensland Press2025Martin ThomasClever MenAllen & Unwin
Alex Buzo Shortlist Prize recipients Year Author Title Result Ref. 2017 Kate Cole-Adams Anesthesia: The Gift of Oblivion and the Mystery of Consciousness Winner Richard Fidler Ghost Empire Shortlist Bruce Munday Those Wild Rabbits: How They Shaped Australia Shortlist Madeleine O'Dea The Phoenix Years: Art, Resistance, and the Making of Modern China Shortlist Sebastian Smee The Art of Rivalry: Four Friendships, Betrayals, and Breakthroughs in Modern Art Shortlist 2018 Helen Lewis The Dead Still Cry Out: The Story of a Combat Cameraman Winner Roger Averill Relatively Famous Shortlist Tanya Bretherton The Suitcase Baby: The Heartbreaking True Story of a Shocking Crime in 1920s Sydney Shortlist Sarah Krasnostein The Trauma Cleaner Shortlist Bri Lee Eggshell Skull Shortlist Charles Massy Call of the Reed Warbler: A New Agriculture, a New Earth Shortlist 2019 Nadia Wheatley Her Mother's Daughter: A Memoir Winner Alice Gorman Dr Space Junk vs The Universe: Archaeology and the Future Shortlist Mary Hoban An Unconventional Wife: The Life of Julia Sorell Arnold Shortlist Chloe Hooper The Arsonist Shortlist Lee Kofman Imperfect Shortlist 2020 Rebecca Giggs Fathoms: The World in the Whale Winner Brenda Niall Friends and Rivals: Four Great Australian Writers: Barbara Baynton, Ethel Turner, Nettie Palmer, Henry Handel Richardson Shortlist Imre Salusinszky The Hilton Bombing: Evan Pederick and the Ananda Marga Shortlist Quentin Sprague The Stranger Artist: Life at the Edge of Kimberley Painting Shortlist 2021 Luke Stegemann Amnesia Road: Landscape, Violence and Memory Winner Gabrielle Carey Only Happiness Here: In Search of Elizabeth Von Arnim Shortlist Kate Holden The Winter Road: A Story of Legacy, Land and a Killing at Croppa Creek Shortlist Ramona Koval A Letter to Layla: Travels to Our Deep Past and near Future Shortlist Sarah KrasnosteinThe Believer: Encounters with the Beginning, the End, and Our Place in the MiddleShortlist Tim Olsen Son of the Brush Shortlist 2022 Delia Falconer Signs and Wonders: Dispatches from a Time of Beauty and Loss Winner Tim Bonyhady Two Afternoons in the Kabul Stadium Shortlist Carol Major The Asparagus Wars Shortlist Colin McLaren, Anna Sergi Mafioso Shortlist Steve Toltz Here Goes Nothing Shortlist 2023 Alison Bashford An Intimate History of Evolution: The Story of the Huxley Family Winner André Dao Anam Shortlist Jim Davidson Emperors in Lilliput: Clem Christesen of Meanjin and Stephen Murray-Smith of Overland Shortlist Fiona McMillan-Webster The Age of Seeds Shortlist Ross McMullin Life So Full of Promise: Further Biographies of Australia's Lost Generation Shortlist Brigitta Olubas Shirley Hazzard: A Writing Life Shortlist 2024 Melissa Lucashenko Edenglassie Winner Shauna Bostock Reaching Through Time: Finding My Family's Stories Shortlist Deborah Conway Book of Life Shortlist Ryan Cropp Donald Horne: A Life in the Lucky Country Shortlist Anna Funder Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life Shortlist Dave Witty What the Trees See: A Wander Through Millennia of Natural History in Australia Shortlist 2025Martin ThomasClever MenWinnerHelen EnnisMax DupainShortlistAmy McQuireBlack WitnessShortlistRick MortonMean Streak (People's Choice winner)ShortlistSamah SabawiCactus Pear for My BelovedShortlistTasma WaltonI Am NannertgarrookShortlist
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