The Sidney Prize 2023 Winners Have Just Been Announced
Sidney Myer Fund believes in rewarding talent and hard work. Since 1984, they have given out more than $5.3 million directly to artists across disciplines, helping people from diverse backgrounds reach their full potential. Recently announced winners were revealed.
Overland magazine recently announced Rachel Ang as the winner of its Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize with her story ‘Thalassophobia’, for which she received $5,000 AUD. Overland judges noted how the story highlights marginalised or vulnerable identities in its telling.
Sidney University has always outshone its competition and boasts an engaging history that often defies expectations. After starting as a theological and mathematical college for two centuries, Sidney emerged as a powerhouse in medical, natural, and physical sciences in its third century; reforms implemented during Chafy’s administration permanently altered its trajectory.
One such scientist who made their mark at Sidney during this era was geologist Oliver Bulman, whose Burgess Shale discoveries were famously popularised by Stephen Jay Gould in an international bestseller; botanist E J H Corner; W T Stearn (father of stereometry – measuring optical properties of organic compounds to establish plant taxonomy); cardiologist G R Mines; chemist Harry Emeleus and physicist C T R Wilson are just a few.
In social sciences, there were William Wollaston whose 1724 ‘Religion of Nature Delineated’ won enormous sales and earned him one of five British ‘worthies’; Sir William Petty; poet Thomas Grey; and, most importantly of all, moralist Edward Gibbon.
Sidney has long been home to journalism, including a generation of pioneering women journalists such as Murray Kempton who battled Joseph McCarthy during the Red Scare; Julie K Brown for her reporting of listeria outbreaks and sweetheart deals; Ari Berman’s 2019 coverage on voter suppression are just a few examples that highlight Sidney’s history of bold journalism. These honourees represent this year’s legacy of courageous yet insightful journalism in Sidney.
Overland’s Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize is an annual competition open to Australian writers who have written exceptional short fiction. No restrictions apply in terms of age, gender, nationality or subject matter – all are welcome to submit. Shortlisted entries and the winning entry will be published in Overland literary and cultural journal with subscription discounts offered specifically to competition entrants. Imaginative creative literary interpretations as well as stories highlighting marginalised or vulnerable identities are especially encouraged!