ABR Calibre Prize now open
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NOW OPEN!
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Prize money: $7,500 Closing: 17 January 2022 Judges: Declan Fry, Beejay Silcox, and Peter Rose |
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Australian Book Review welcomes entries to the 2022 Calibre Essay Prize, one of the world’s leading prizes for an original non-fiction essay. The prize – worth a total of AU$7,500 – is open to all essayists writing in English. The winner will receive $5,000; the runner-up will receive $2,500. We seek essays of between 2,000 and 5,000 words on any subject. We welcome essays of all kinds: personal or political, traditional or experimental.
This year, the Calibre Essay Prize is judged by Declan Fry, Beejay Silcox, and Peter Rose. For more information about our judges, click here. Good luck, and we look forward to receiving your essays!
Note: Please use the online entry form to submit your essay. Click here to find out information about past winners. Before contacting us with queries, see our Frequently Asked Questions and Terms and Conditions. Exclusivity Entries may be offered elsewhere during the judging of the Calibre Prize. If an entrant is longlisted and has their essay offered elsewhere, the entrant will have 24 hours to decide if they would like to withdraw their essay on offer elsewhere or from the Calibre Prize. Exclusivity is essential for longlisted essays. The overall winning essay will be published in the magazine in the May 2022 with the runner-up to be published later in the year.
Entry fees Current ABR subscribers: $15 *All non-subscribers will automatically receive four-month digital access to ABR free of charge. |
2021 Theodore Ell: ‘Façades of Lebanon‘
Theodore Ell is the winner of the 2021 Calibre Essay Prize, worth a total of $7,500, for their essay ‘Façades of Lebanon’. The judges wrote that the essay is ‘a gripping piece of reportage and a powerful meditation on the bonds of community in a time of turmoil and upheaval. It builds slowly, ominously, from the eerie quiet of Beirut during lockdown towards the catastrophic port explosion on 4 August 2020’. Ell receives $5,000.
Anita Punton was named runner-up for ‘May Day’, a poignant memoir about piecing together her Olympic gymnast father’s life after his death. Anita receives $2,500.
ABR Editor Peter Rose judged the prize with Sheila Fitzpatrick and Billy Griffiths. They chose Theodore Ell’s winning essay from 638 entries from twenty-eight different countries.