The ALS Gold Medal is awarded annually for an outstanding literary work in the preceding calendar year. The Medal was inaugurated by the Australian Literature Society, which was founded in Melbourne in 1899 and incorporated into the Association for the Study of Australian Literature in 1982. The winner receives a gold medal. No nominations are required, though ASAL members are invited to propose potential winners to the judging panel.

ALS Gold Medal 2018 

The Chair for the 2018 ALS Gold Medal is:

Bill Ashcroft

2018 Judges:

Bill Ashcroft, Bernadette Brennan and David Gilbey.

Short List

Peter Carey, A Long Way from Home (Penguin)

Shastra Deo, The Agonist (University of Queensland Press)

Eva Hornung, The Last Garden (Text)

Sofie Laguna, The Choke (Allen and Unwin)

Steven Lang, Hinterland (University of Queensland Press)

Gerald Murnane, Border Districts (Giramondo)

For more information about the ALS Gold Medal and its recipients click here.

To view the 2017 ALS Gold Medal Judges' Report click here

To view the 2017 citation response by Zoe Morrison click here.

To view the 2016 ALS Gold Medal Judges' Report click here.

To view the 2015 ALS Gold Medal Judges' Report click here.

To view the 2014 ALS Gold Medal Judges' Report click here.

To view the 2013 ALS Gold Medal Judges' Report click here.

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.

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

To be given for the best first book of poetry published in the previous calendar year (until 2016 this was for the best first book of poetry in the previous two calendar years and until 1999 for the best first book of poetry published in the previous calendar year).

Toby Davidson is chairing the Mary Gilmore judging panel for 2018. His email address is Toby Davidson  toby.davidson@mq.edu.au

Many thanks to the judging team, Toby Davidson, Marcelle Freiman and Mark Reid.

Mary Gilmore Award 2018 Shortlist

Shastra Deo, The Agonist (UQP)

Quinn Eades, Rallying (UWA Publishing)

Susan Fealy, Flute of Milk (UWA Publishing)

Amanda Joy, Snake Like Charms (UWA Publishing)

Nguyễn Tiên Hoàng, Captive and Temporal (Vagabond)

For more information about Mary Gilmore click here.

To view the 2017 Mary Gilmore Award click here

To view the 2016 Mary Gilmore Award click here

To view the 2014 Mary Gilmore Award Report click here.

(Image: Dame Mary Gilmore by May Moore, 1916. Courtesy of the State Library of NSW. Source.)

The National Executive of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature awards the A. A. Phillips Award as occasion merits in recognition of outstanding contributions to Australian literary scholarship. Any member of the Association may make nominations to the executive at any time.

For more information about A. A. Phillips click here.

(Image: A.A. Phillips, photographer unknown, The Age, 2 October 1946. p.25. Source.)

The Magarey Medal for biography is a biennial prize. The prize is awarded to the female author who has published the work judged to be the best biographical writing on an Australian subject in the preceding two years. The awarding of the prize is administered and judged by a panel set up by the Association for the Study of Australian Literature and the Australian Historical Association. The prize is very generously donated by Professor Emerita Susan Magarey.

The judging panel for the 2018 Magarey Medal for Biography are: Gillian Whitlock (ASAL) Chair, Chris Lee (ASAL) and Fiona Paisley (AHA).

Shortlist for the 2018 Magarey Medal for Biography

We are delighted to announce the books that have been shortlisted for this year’s Magarey Medal for Biography. 

Shortlist:

• Bernadette Brennan, A Writing Life: Helen Garner and Her Work (Text, 2017).
• Judith Brett, The Enigmatic Mr Deakin (Text Publishing, 2017).
• Suzanne Falkiner, Mick: A Life of Randolph Stow (UWA Publishing, 2016).
• Cathy McLennan, Saltwater: An Epic Fight for Justice in the Tropics (UQP, 2016).
• Alexis Wright, Tracker (Giramondo, 2017).

The judging panel commends all the authors whose books are shortlisted this year, and both ASAL and AHA thank the judges for their work. The winner of the Magarey Medal will be announced at the awards ceremony on Tuesday 3 July, on the opening night of the 2018 Literary Convention, at the ANU in Canberra.

For more details see http://slll.cass.anu.edu.au/events/2018-literary-studies-convention-1

To view the 2016 Magarey Medal click here

To view the 2014 Magarey Medal Judges' Report click here.

The A.D. Hope Prize is awarded annually for the paper judged to be the best ASAL July annual conference paper delivered by a postgraduate student. The paper is to be sent to the judging panel, in publishable form, after the conference (date to be announced each year). The winning paper will receive publication in JASAL and $500.

The Winner of the 2017 A.D. Hope Prize is Jonathan Dunk.

For more information about A.D. Hope click here.

To view the 2017 A.D. Hope Prize Report click here

To view the 2016 A.D. Hope Prize Report click here

To view the 2015 A.D. Hope Prize Report click here

To view the 2014 A.D. Hope Prize Report click here.

An award for the best first book of literary scholarship by an early career researcher (ECR) on an Australian subject, published in the preceding two calendar years. Researchers are eligible for this award if their book is published within five years of the date of PhD award, or longer if combined with periods of significant career interruption. No nominations are required, though ASAL members are invited to propose books for consideration by the judging panel.

Note about the Alvie Egan Award: This award has been established in honour of Mrs Alvie Egan, a long-serving Secretary of the Australian Literature Society and grand daughter of the poet Bernard O’Dowd.