Biography Awards

Awarded annually, the National Biography Award is Australia's most prestigious biography prize. It is open to citizens and permanent residents of Australia who have published a work of biography or autobiography. Worth $20,000, it is administered by the State Library of New South Wales on behalf of the award's benefactors, Dr Geoffrey Cains and Michael Crouch, A.M.

The Magarey Medal for Biography is awarded biennially. Feminist and historian Dr Susan Magarey instituted the award in 2004 as a counterbalance to the Magarery Medal for Football funded by a relative in 1898. The award is open to women who have published the biography of an Australian subject in the previous two years and is worth $10,000 (indexed for inflation). It is administered by the Australian Historical Association and the Association for the Study of Australian Literature.

Nita May Dobbie established the Kibble Literary Award in honour of her aunt Nita Kibble (1879-1962), the first woman librarian appointed by the State Library of New South Wales. Worth $30,000, the annual award recognises the work of established female writers in the area of life-writing. It is administered by Perpetual Trustees.

Biography Scholarships and Fellowships

The Seymour Summer Scholarship was established by John and Heather Seymour who also sponsor the annual Seymour Biography Lecture. It aims to support postgraduate students under the age of 30, who are Australian citizens or permanent residents, and want to undertake biographical research at the National Library of Australia. The scholarships are for a period of six weeks commencing on the first working day of January each year.

The Australian Prime Ministers Centre also offers fellowships for established scholars, and summer scholarships for students, undertaking research on Australia’s prime minsters, their lives, achievements and governments.