S.H. Prior Memorial Prize
Subcategory of Awards Australian Awards
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History

The S. H. Prior Memorial Prize was is awarded annually for the best work of fiction by an Australian author. The prize was founded to recognise the service to Australian literature by S. H. Prior , editor of The Bulletin for 18 years, by his son, H.K. Prior. 

The prize was not awarded in 1937.

Notes

  • Established after the death of Bulletin editor S. H. Prior and awarded 1935-1936. (Oxford Companion to Australian Literature).

Latest Winners / Recipients

Year: 1946

winner y separately published work icon Cookabundy Bridge and Other Stories Brian James , Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1946 Z89254 1946 selected work short story

Year: 1945

winner form y separately published work icon The Fire on the Snow Douglas Stewart , 1941 1941 (Manuscript version)x400861 Z320857 1941 single work radio play

Year: 1942

winner y separately published work icon It's Harder for Girls and Other Stories Gavin Casey , Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1942 Z824564 1942 selected work short story

Year: 1940

joint winner y separately published work icon The Battlers Kylie Tennant , London : Gollancz , 1941 Z250421 1941 single work novel (taught in 1 units)

'The flowers flared up from the ground unconquerable. The unrepentant gaiety of the weed, the burning blues and crimsons, set the hills glowing.

''It's a plant that's struck it lucky,' the Stray said thoughtfully. 'It hasn't got no right, but it's there.'

'The Battlers is the story of Snow, a drifter and wanderer, the waiflike Dancy the Stray, from the slums of Sydney, and the other outcasts who accompany them as they travel the country roads looking for work. Like the weed Patterson's Curse, they 'haven't got no right', but they are there. Based on her own experiences of life on the roads in the 1930s, Tennant tells the story of the motley crowd of travellers with compassion and humour. First published in 1941, The Battlers was awarded the Gold Medal of the Australian Literature Society and shared the S. H. Prior Memorial Prize. More than seventy years later, the book's message of survival against the odds is as relevant today as it was then. ' (Publication summary)

joint winner y separately published work icon The Pea Pickers Eve Langley , Sydney London : Angus and Robertson , 1942 Z454411 1942 single work novel (taught in 1 units)

'In The Pea Pickers, a novel based on Eve Langley's own experiences, Steve and Blue are two girls who, dressed as men, are taken on as itinerant workers for the farmers of Gippsland. They pack apples and pick peas. But their disguise is partial - and their quest is for love. For Blue the novel ends in marriage; but not for Steve. For her, desire is never straightforward, and love - for men, for women, for country - leaves her confused, but independent. ' (Publication summary)

Year: 1939

winner y separately published work icon Who Was Joseph Furphy? The Glowworm , 1939 (Manuscript version)x401161 Z910448 1939 single work biography

Works About this Award

y separately published work icon Frank Dalby Davison Comments Frank Dalby Davison , 1947 Z829264 1947 single work column
The S.H. Prior Prize 1945 single work column
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 18 July vol. 66 no. 3414 1945; (p. 7)
"The Bulletin" Today Douglas Stewart , 1945 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 18 July vol. 66 no. 3414 1945; (p. 2)
S.H. Prior Prize [The Bulletin, 20 September 1944] 1944 single work column
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 20 September vol. 65 no. 3371 1944; (p. 2)
Prior Prize Judges' Report Beatrice Davis , H. M. Green , 1942 single work column
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 14 January vol. 63 no. 3231 1942; (p. 2)
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