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Australian Biography of the Year (2006-)
Subcategory of Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA)
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Latest Winners / Recipients

Year: 2023

winner y separately published work icon My Dream Time : A Memoir of Tennis and Teamwork Ashleigh Barty , Sydney : HarperCollins Australia , 2022 25266341 2022 single work autobiography

'It's a tennis story. It's a family story. It's a teamwork story. It's the story of how I got to where and who I am today.

'I'm only in my mid-twenties, and some might think that's young to write a memoir. Who does that, right? But for me and my team it's always been important to reflect on every part of the journey, especially the end. In that context, the timing is perfect to share my story, from the first time I picked up a racquet as a 5-year-old girl in Ipswich to the night I packed up my tennis bag at Melbourne Park after winning the 2022 Australian Open. This book gives me a chance to look back at every moment of the 20 years in between, and to think carefully through the highs and lows, the work and the play, the smiles and the tears.

'Telling my story also gives me an opportunity to do more than simply thank those who mean the most to me – it provides a way to honour them as an integral part of that tale, as the very secret behind my success. Some of them you might know – such as my longtime coach, Craig Tyzzer – and some of them you might not – like my first childhood coach, Jim Joyce. There are mates like Casey Dellacqua and Alicia Molik. Mentors such as tennis icon Evonne Goolagong Cawley and mindset coach Ben Crowe. My parents and sisters and my husband have sacrificed as much as I have over the years – this book is also for them.

'My Dream Time is about finding the path to being the best I could be, not just as an athlete but as a person, and to consider the way those identities overlap and compete. We all have a professional and a personal self. How do you conquer nerves and anxiety? How do you deal with defeat, or pain? What drives you to succeed – and what happens when you do? The answers tell me so much, about bitter disappointments and also dreams realised – from injuries and obscurity and self-doubt to winning Wimbledon and ranking number 1 in the world.

'My story is about the power and joy of doing that thing you love and seeing where it can take you, about the importance of purpose – and perspective – in our lives.'  (Publication summary)

Year: 2022

Indexed selectively. Also longlisted: Power Play (Julia Banks); How We Love (Clementine Ford).
winner y separately published work icon My Adventurous Life Dick Smith , Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2021 22586187 2021 single work autobiography

'I have been charmed by good fortune to be born in Australia in the 1940s. I have lived through a time of great prosperity and every day I am reminded of my good luck.'

'Dick Smith is a remarkable and proud Australian. He has been part of our national consciousness for over fifty years as an innovative and astute businessman, a ground-breaking adventurer, a generous philanthropist and a provocateur for the causes he feels deeply about. Yet, despite his great successes and achievements, Dick has remained down to earth and close to his roots.

'So how did the young boy who was one of the most academically hopeless in class become the national living treasure he is today? And what was it within that kid with a speech impediment that allowed him to create three successful businesses, and take on some of the world's greatest and most dangerous aviation challenges?

'In My Adventurous Life, Dick shares his inspiring story and the lessons he's learned about staying true to yourself. He has welcomed the freedoms that wealth brings, but has found the simple life more fulfilling. His responsibility is to the world and the people we share it with.' (Publication summary)

Year: 2021

winner y separately published work icon The Happiest Man on Earth Eddie Jaku , Sydney : Pan Macmillan Australia , 2020 19672420 2020 single work autobiography

'Life can be beautiful if you make it beautiful. It is up to you. Eddie Jaku always considered himself a German first, a Jew second. He was proud of his country. But all of that changed on 9 November 1938, when he was beaten, arrested and taken to a concentration camp. Over the next seven years, Eddie faced unimaginable horrors every day, first in Buchenwald, then in Auschwitz, then on the Nazi death march. He lost family, friends, his country. Because he survived, Eddie made the vow to smile every day. He pays tribute to those who were lost by telling his story, sharing his wisdom and living his best possible life. He now believes he is the 'happiest man on earth'. Published as Eddie turns 100, this is a powerful, heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful memoir of how happiness can be found even in the darkest of times.' (Publication summary)

Year: 2020

winner y separately published work icon When All Is Said and Done Neale Daniher , Warwick Green , Melbourne : Pan Macmillan Australia , 2019 18075246 2019 single work autobiography

'A wise man said, 'Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.'I understand the wisdom of this - right now, I don't have much 'forwards' left.

'Neale Daniher sat down to pen a letter to the grandchildren he'll never get to know. And then he kept on writing ...

'In 2013, the AFL legend was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease - a cruel and incurable condition. He had a choice. He could spend his remaining time focused on himself, or he could seize the opportunity to make a better future for others.

'Neale is no stranger to challenge. He grew up on a farm in remote New South Wales, the third of eleven children. He battled injury during his football career with Essendon, then jumped on the coaching rollercoaster, leading Melbourne for a decade. As general manager of football operations, he was part of the West Coast Eagles' cultural rebuild.

'From the hard-won wisdom of life on the land and the love of his family, to the triumphs and gutting lows of elite football, Neale has learnt to make the most of the cards he's been dealt - to always live with purpose and to appreciate what he has.

'True to form, Neale chose to stare down the disease he calls 'The Beast', and in 2014 he co-founded FightMND, an organisation that has since invested over $40 million into research and care initiatives. In 2015, he became the public face of the foundation's biggest fundraising event, The Big Freeze.

'When All is Said & Done is a book of stories and wisdom from a man who has always held his beliefs to the Bunsen burner of life. Neale is unflinchingly honest, sharing a timely reminder that, even though life doesn't promise to be fair, we all have the power to choose how to make our time on this earth matter.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Year: 2019

winner y separately published work icon Eggshell Skull Bri Lee , Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2018 13717214 2018 single work autobiography

'EGGSHELL SKULL: A well-established legal doctrine that a defendant must 'take their victim as they find them'. If a single punch kills someone because of their thin skull, that victim's weakness cannot mitigate the seriousness of the crime.

'But what if it also works the other way? What if a defendant on trial for sexual crimes has to accept his 'victim' as she comes: a strong, determined accuser who knows the legal system, who will not back down until justice is done?

'Bri Lee began her first day of work at the Queensland District Court as a bright-eyed judge's associate. Two years later she was back as the complainant in her own case.

'This is the story of Bri's journey through the Australian legal system; first as the daughter of a policeman, then as a law student, and finally as a judge's associate in both metropolitan and regional Queensland -- where justice can look very different, especially for women. The injustice Bri witnessed, mourned and raged over every day finally forced her to confront her own personal history, one she'd vowed never to tell. And this is how, after years of struggle, she found herself on the other side of the courtroom, telling her story.

'Bri Lee has written a fierce and eloquent memoir that addresses both her own reckoning with the past as well as with the stories around her, to speak the truth with wit, empathy and unflinching courage. Eggshell Skull is a haunting appraisal of modern Australia from a new and essential voice.' (Source: Publisher's blurb)

Works About this Award

Undercover Marc McEvoy , 2011 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 23-24 July 2011; (p. 33)
A column canvassing current literary news including a comment on the nominated titles in the biography category of the 2011 Australian Book Industry Awards. Marc McEvoy also notes the publication by Hodder of 'flipback' paperbacks and lists some of the Australian authors attending the 2011 Edinburgh Writers' Festival.
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