Les Carlyon Literary Prize shortlist announced

The Australian War Memorial is proud to announce the shortlisted finalists for the inaugural Les Carlyon Literary Prize.

The prize will be awarded for an author’s first major publication relating to Australian military history, social military history or war history, as either fiction or nonfiction, and published between 2018 and June 2020. More than 60 works were submitted for the prize.

When assessing entries for the prize, the judging panel considered literary merit, and the contribution of the work to understanding the Australian experience of war and conflict. The works were also assessed for authenticity and credibility in storytelling, and originality.

The shortlisted authors and their works are listed in alphabetical order:

Kate Ariotti for Captive Anzacs: Australian POWs of the Ottomans during the First World War, published by Cambridge University Press in 2018

Danielle Binks for The year the maps changed published by Hachette Australia in 2020

Anne Connor for Two generations: a memoir of secrets, forgiveness and my father published by Impact Press in 2018 

Stephen Gapps for The Sydney wars: conflict in the early colony 1788–1817 published by NewSouth Publishing in 2018. 

The winner of the prize will be announced at a media event on 19 November.

Denise Carlyon, reflecting on her husband, Les Carlyon AC: “He always said good writing was hard, and it was always about the words.”