The National Biography Award, established in Australia in 1996, is awarded for the best published work of biographical or autobiographical writing by an Australian. It aims "to encourage the highest standards of writing biography and autobiography and to promote public interest in those genres". It was initially awarded every two years, but from 2002 it has been awarded annually. Its administration was taken over by the State Library of New South Wales in 1998.
It was originally endowed by private benefactor, Dr. Geoffrey Cains, and the original prize money was $12,500. In 2002, Cains said of endowing the award that "I wanted to give back to literature something, it had given me so much; besides, philanthropy in this country is so overlooked and diminished". In 2005, the prize money was increased to $20,000 with the support of Michael Crouch. Belinda Hutchinson, former President of the Library Council of NSW, expressed gratitude for this increase to "an award that celebrates the Australian psyche through distinguished biography writing." In 2012 the prize money for the Award has been increased to $25,000. The judging panel varies from year to year.
2016: Brenda Niall for Mannix
2015: Philip Butterss for An Unsentimental Bloke: The Life and Work of C J Dennis
2014: Alison Alexander for The Ambitions of Jane Franklin: Victorian Lady Adventurer
2013: Peter Fitzpatrick for The Two Frank Thrings
2012: Martin Thomas for The Many Worlds of R. H. Mathews: In Search of an Australian Anthropologist
2011: Alasdair McGregor for Grand Obsessions: The Life and Work of Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin
2010: Brian Matthews for Manning Clark: A Life
2009: Ann Blainey for I am Melba
2008: Joint winners
Philip Dwyer for Napoleon, 1769-1799: The Path to Power
Graham Seal for These Few Lines: A Convict Story - The Lost Lives of Myra and William Sykes
2007: Jacob Rosenberg for East of Time
2006: John Hughes for The Idea of Home
2005: Robert Hillman for The Boy in the Green Suit
2004: Barry Hill for Broken Song: T.G.H. Strehlow and Aboriginal Possession
2003: Joint winners
Peter Rose for Rose Boys
Don Watson for Recollections of a Bleeding Heart : a Portrait of Paul Keating PM
2002: Jacqueline Kent for A Certain Style: Beatrice Davis, a Literary Life
2000: Joint winners
Peter Robb for M, a biography of European painter Caravaggio
Mandy Sayer for Dreamtime Alice: a Memoir
1998: Roberta Sykes for Snake Cradle
1996: Abraham Biderman for The World of My Past
In 2003, the National Biography Award lecture was instituted. It is associated with the award, and is also sponsored by Cains and Crouch. It is given annually, but is not given at the same time as the announcement of the winner.
2013: A different perspective, a shared story, by John Elder Robison
2012: Looking for Eliza by Evelyn Juers
2011: Recollections of a Bleeding Heart: A Portrait of Paul Keating PM, by Don Watson
2010: Biography: The Art of the Impossible, by Hilary McPhee AO
2009: ‘Truth’ as applied to biography and autobiography, by Raimon Gaita
2008: Biography, Autobiography and Memoir: Presidential Bests and Worsts, by Bob Carr
2007: Biography: The Impossible Art, by Inga Clendinnen
2006: Materials for Life: The Enduring Value of Biography, by Robyn Archer
2005: Personal Drama: David Williamson on Self-depiction, by David Williamson
2004: The Observed of all Observers: Biography in Poetry, by Peter Porter (poet)
2003: Goethe's Two Left Feet: Reflections on the Hazards and Liberties of Biography, by Peter Rose (writer)
