Two Essayists Share $10,000 Prize

This year’s Calibre Prize for an Outstanding Essay has been won by Rachel Robertson and Mark Tredinnick. This is the first time that the Calibre Prize – a joint initiative of ABR and of the Copyright Agency Limited – has been shared (last year’s winner, in the inaugural year, was Elisabeth Holdsworth).

One hundred and twenty-seven essayists entered the competition, an increase on last year. The judges on this occasion were Kerryn Goldsworthy (a former Editor of ABR), Paul Hetherington (Director, Publications and Events, National Library of Australia) and Peter Rose (Editor of ABR). Their choice was not an easy one. Eighteen essays were long-listed, across a range of essayistic genres, from the personal, the speculative and the journalistic to the political and the historical. More so than last year, ecological and environmental themes were prominent, as if a decisive review of priorities and menaces is under way in the popular imagination.