ABR Calibre Prize – Kerry Greer shortlisted

Australian Book Review congratulates Theodore Ell on winning the 2021 Calibre Essay Prize for his essay ‘Façades of Lebanon’. Theodore Ell was living in Beirut on 4 August 2020 when an explosion devastated the city and shook a nation already teetering on the brink of economic collapse. Ell and his diplomat wife were badly affected, but survived. …Theodore receives $5,000 of the total prize money of $7,500. …The 2021 Australian Book Review Calibre Essay Prize was judged by Sheila Fitzpatrick, Billy Griffiths, and Peter Rose. Here are their comments:

It was a privilege to read the submissions for this year’s Calibre Essay Prize, which encompassed a record field of 638 entries from 28 countries. The overall quality was outstanding, and the subject material was rich and varied. It will take many years to digest the events of 2020, but the entries this year make a good start. The shortlisted essays stood out for the intimacy of their prose and the care with which the authors treated their subject matter.

ABR warmly congratulates all the shortlisted entrants:

  • Helen Ennis (ACT): ‘Max Dupain’s dilemmas’
  • Kerry Greer (WA): ‘The Grey Margins of Grief’ (Masters student at Deakin)
  • Meredith Jelbart (Vic.): ‘Aria from the Last Act’
  • David Kearns (ACT): ‘“Never ceded or extinguished”: The Australian Sovereignty Debates’
  • Krissy Kneen (QLD): ‘Dugonesque’
  • Judy Rowley (NSW): ‘The Way Ahead’
  • Morgan Smith (USA): ‘Remembering the KKK Fifty Years Later’
  • Jessica L. Wilkinson (Vic.): ‘Leavings’