Victorian Premier's Prize for Nonfiction


The Victorian Premier's Prize for Nonfiction, formerly known as the
Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction, is a prize category in the annual Victorian Premier's Literary Award. As of 2011 it has a remuneration of 25,000. The winner of this category prize vies with 4 other category winners for overall Victorian Prize for Literature valued at an additional 100,000.
The prize was formerly known as the Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction from inception until 2010 when the awards were re-established under the stewardship of the Wheeler Centre and restarted with new prize amounts and a new name. The Nettie Palmer Prize was valued at 30,000 in 2010. According to the State Library of Victoria which managed the prize from 1997 to 2010, "This prize is offered for a published work of non-fiction. Books consisting principally of photographs or illustrations are ineligible unless the accompanying text is of substantial length." Palmer wrote regularly for numerous newspapers all round Australia. She wrote on a wide range of topics, from environment to cultural events, reviewing all important books being published in Australia, America, Europe and elsewhere.

Victorian Premier's Prize for Nonfiction

Winners of the Overall Victorian Prize for Literature have a blue ribbon.
YearAuthorTitleResultRef.
2011'Winner
2011Good Living StreetFinalist
2011My Blood’s CountryFinalist
2011Delusions of GenderFinalist
2011'Finalist
2011Into the WoodsFinalist
2012 'Winner
20121835: The Founding of Melbourne & The Conquest of AustraliaFinalist
2012AdelaideFinalist
2012'Finalist
2012True North: The Story of Mary and Elizabeth DurackFinalist
2012Her Father's DaughterFinalist
2014Forgotten WarWinner
2014White BeechFinalist
2014On WarneFinalist
2014Gardens of Fire: An Investigative MemoirFinalist
2014Boy, Lost: A Family MemoirFinalist
2014Madeleine: A Life of Madeleine St JohnFinalist
2014NPY Women's CouncilCommended: Traditional Healers of Central Australia: NgangkariFinalist
2015 'Winner
2015Acute Misfortune: The Life and Death of Adam CullenFinalist
2015DarwinFinalist
2015Where Song BeganFinalist
2015'Finalist
2015'Finalist
2016Something for the PainWinner
2016 and Kendrah MorganModern Love: The Lives of John and Sunday ReedFinalist
2016Thea Astley: Inventing Her Own WeatherFinalist
2016Australia’s Second ChanceFinalist
2016Second Half FirstFinalist
2016MannixFinalist
2017Offshore: Behind the wire on Manus and NauruWinner
2017 with Ben MckelveySongs of a War BoyFinalist
2017'Finalist
2017 with Patricia Drum'Finalist
2017Position DoubtfulFinalist
2017'Finalist
2018 'Winner
2018'Finalist
2018Anaesthesia: The Gift of Oblivion and the Mystery of ConsciousnessFinalist
2018For a Girl: A True Story of Secrets, Motherhood and HopeFinalist
2018TrackerFinalist
2019 No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus PrisonWinner
2019Staying: A MemoirFinalist
2019'Finalist
2019Eggshell SkullFinalist
2019Miss Ex-YugoslaviaFinalist
2019AxiomaticFinalist
2020Sea People: The Puzzle of PolynesiaWinner
2020'Finalist
2020See What You Made Me Do: Power, Control and Domestic AbuseFinalist
2020Future Histories: What Ada Lovelace, Tom Paine, and the Paris Commune Can Teach Us About Digital TechnologyFinalist
2020Tell Me Why: The Story of My Life and My MusicFinalist
2020Gay’wu Group of WomenSongspirals: Sharing Women's Wisdom of Country Through SonglinesFinalist
2021Body Count: How Climate Change is Killing UsWinner
2021Show Me Where It HurtsFinalist
2021WitnessFinalist
2021 and Lynne KellySonglines: The Power and PromiseFinalist
2021BlueberriesFinalist
2021Fire Country: How Indigenous Fire Management Could Help Save AustraliaFinalist
2022'Winner'
2022Coming of Age in the War on TerrorFinalist
2022Summertime: Reflections on a Vanishing FutureFinalist
2022 Black and Blue: A Memoir of Racism and ResilienceFinalist'
2022Buried Not DeadFinalist
2022Another Day in the ColonyFinalist
2023Root & Branch: Essays on InheritanceWinner
2023ChildhoodFinalist
2023Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong KongFinalist
2023'Finalist
2023People Who Lunch: Essays on Work, Leisure and Loose LivingFinalist
2023Our Members Be Unlimited: A Comic about Workers and Their UnionsFinalist
2024 Ellen van NeervenPersonal Score: Sport, culture, identityWinner
2024Kris KneenFat Girl DancingFinalist
2024Antony LoewensteinThe Palestine Laboratory: How Israel exports the technology of occupation around the worldFinalist
2024Chris MastersFlawed Hero: Truth, lies and war crimesFinalist
2024David MarrKilling for Country: A family storyFinalist
2024Jordana SilversteinCruel Care: A history of children at our bordersFinalist
2025Anything Can HappenWinner
2025The Lasting Harm: Witnessing the Trial of Ghislaine MaxwellFinalist
2025MonumentFinalist
2025Näku Dhäruk The Bark Petitions: How the People of Yirrkala Changed the Course of Australian DemocracyFinalist
2025A Very Secret TradeFinalist
2026AnkamiFinalist
2026The Eagle and the CrowFinalist
2026Looking from the North: Australian history from the top downFinalist
2026Find Me at the Jaffa Gate: An encyclopaedia of a Palestinian familyFinalist
2026 and Ariel BogleConspiracy NationFinalist