Civic Choice Award (2006-)
Subcategory of Melbourne Prize
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Notes

  • After the finalists are announced for the Melbourne Prize for Literature and Best Writing Award, the public are invited to vote for the Civic Choice Award on the Melbourne Prize Trust website as well as during an exhibition of the finalists in Melbourne, Victoria.

Latest Winners / Recipients

Year: 2021

Year: 2018

winner y separately published work icon Cardinal : The Rise and Fall of George Pell Louise Milligan , Carlton : Melbourne University Press , 2017 11416991 2017 single work biography

'George Pell is the most recognisable face of the Australian Catholic Church. He was the Ballarat boy with the film-star looks who studied at Oxford and rose through the ranks to become the Vatican's indispensable 'Treasurer'. As an outspoken defender of church orthodoxy, 'Big George's' ascendancy within the clergy was remarkable and seemingly unstoppable.

'The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse has brought to light horrific stories about sexual abuse of the most vulnerable and provoked public anger at the extent of the cover-up. George Pell has always portrayed himself as the first man in the Church to tackle the problem. But questions about what the Cardinal knew, and when, have persisted.

'The nation's most prominent Catholic is now the subject of a police investigation into allegations spanning decades that he too abused children. Louise Milligan is the only Australian journalist who has been privy to the most intimate stories of complainants.

'She pieces together a series of disturbing pictures of the Cardinal's knowledge and his actions, many of which are being told here for the first time.

'Conspiracy or cover-up? Cardinal uncovers uncomfortable truths about a culture of sexual entitlement, abuse of trust and how ambition can silence evil. ' (Publication summary)

Year: 2015

winner Robyn Annear for the essay 'Places without Poetry'.

Year: 2012

winner y separately published work icon Blood Tony Birch , St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2011 Z1821176 2011 single work novel (taught in 5 units)

'Jesse has sworn to protect his sister, Rachel, no matter what. It's a promise that cannot be broken. A promise made in blood. But, when it comes down to life or death, how can he find the courage to keep it? Set on the back roads of Australia, Blood is a boy's odyssey through a broken-down adult world.' (Source: Publisher website)

Year: 2009

winner y separately published work icon The Good Daughter : A Novel Amra Pajalić , Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2009 Z1601539 2009 single work novel young adult Fifteen-year-old Sabiha has a lot to deal with: her mother's mental health issues, her interfering aunt, her mother's new boyfriend, her live-in grandfather and his chess buddy, not to mention her arrogant cousin Adnan. They all want to marry her off, have her become a strict Muslim and speak Bosnian. And Sabiha's friends are not always friendly. She gets bullied by girlfriends and is anxious about boyfriends, when she just wants to fit in. But two boys, Brian and Jesse, become the allies of this fierce and funny girl.

Works About this Award

Bordering on the Brink Jason Steger , 2009 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 28 November 2009; (p. 32)
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