To be given to the best book of literary scholarship on an Australian subject published in the preceding two calendar years. Up till 1994 for an outstanding work of literary scholarship by a young or unestablished author (usually a first book). No nominations are required, though ASAL members are invited to propose books for consideration by the judging panel.
Shortlist for Walter McRae Russell Award 2019
Katherine Bode, A World of Fiction: Digital Collections and the Future of Literary History, University of Michigan Press, 2018.
David Carter and Roger Osborne, Australian Books and Authors in the American Marketplace, 1840-1940s, Sydney University Press, 2018.
Jessica Gildersleeve, Christos Tsiolkas: The Utopian Vision, Cambria Press, 2017.
Tony Hughes-d’Aeth, Like Nothing on this Earth: A Literary History of the Wheatbelt, UWA Publishing, 2017.
Brigid Rooney, Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity, Anthem Press, 2018.
Longlist for Walter McRae Russell Award 2019
Katherine Bode, A World of Fiction: Digital Collections and the Future of Literary History, University of Michigan Press, 2018.
David Carter and Roger Osborne, Australian Books and Authors in the American Marketplace, 1840-1940s, Sydney University Press, 2018.
Ken Gelder and Rachel Weaver, Colonial Australian Fiction, Sydney University Press, 2017.
Jessica Gildersleeve, Christos Tsiolkas: The Utopian Vision, Cambria Press, 2017.
Sneja Gunew, Post-Multicultural Writers as Neo-cosmopolitan Mediators, Anthem Press, 2017.
Tony Hughes-d’Aeth, Like Nothing on the Earth: A Literary History of the Wheatbelt, UWA Press, 2017.
Simone Murray, The Digital Literary Sphere, Johns Hopkins Press, 2018.
Brigid Rooney, Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity, Anthem Press, 2018.
Walter McRae Russell Judging panel for 2019:
Chair: Elizabeth Webby (Chair): elizabeth.webby@sydney.edu.au
Brigitta Olubas
Marguerite Nolan
The Winner for the 2017 award is Elizabeth McMahon for her monograph Islands, Identity and the Literary Imagination published by Anthem Press in 2016.
The 2017 citation can be read here.
The 2017 shortlist can be read here
The 2015 citation can be read here