Long list chosen in John Button Prize — 09.07.2009
Thirty-one entries have been chosen to go before the judges in the $20,000 John Button Prize for Australia’s best piece of writing on politics and public policy in the past year.
The successful entries, listed below, were chosen from nearly 100 pieces of writing – including books, essays, journalism articles, academic research and a speech – that were submitted for the inaugural Prize.
The work covers a wide range of subjects, although Indigenous issues, climate change, the end of the Howard Government and the election of Barack Obama, seen from an Australian perspective, featured strongly.
The main Prize judges -- former New South Wales Premier Bob Carr, 7.30 Report Presenter Kerry O'Brien, former Eureka Street editor Morag Fraser, political scientist Professor Judith Brett and the Nobel-Prize winning novelist, J.M. Coetzee – will meet at the end of July to choose a short list of six, followed by a winner.
The winner will be announced at the inaugural John Button Lecture at the Melbourne Writers Festival on August 28th.
The John Button Prize is supported by the Victorian Government, by Toyota and CSL, among other companies, and by individuals.
More information about the Prize and the John Button Literary Foundation is available at www.johnbuttonprize.org.au
LONG LIST JOHN BUTTON PRIZE 2009
Articles and Essays
Robyn Archer - Industry that pays, and art that doesn’t
Don Watson - Once upon a time in America
Galarrwuy Yunupingu - Tradition, truth and tomorrow
Geoff Russell - J’acccuse…. CSIRO
Marcia Langton - The end of big men politics
Michael Fullilove Hope or glory? - The Presidential election, foreign policy and Australia
Laura Tingle - On our selection
David Heatherington - Reimagining the Australian settlement
Annabel Crabb - Stop at nothing: The life and adventures of Malcolm Turnbull
Kate Jennings - American revolution
Tim Flannery - Now or never
Paul Toohey - Last drinks
Guy Pearse - Quarry vision
Books
Peter Hartcher - To the bitter end
Peter Van Onselen and Philip Senior - Howard’s end: The unravelling of a government
Sarah Maddison - Black politics
Geoffrey Robertson - The statue of liberty
Paula Shaw - Seven seasons in Aurukun
Chloe Hooper - The tall man
Peter Singer - The life you can save
Michelle Schwarz - A question of power
Quentin Beresford - The godfather
Mark Davis - The land of plenty
Greg Buckman - Tasmania’s wilderness battles
David Marr - The Henson case
Ben McNeil - The clean industrial revolution
Geoff Boucher and Matthew Sharpe - The times will suit them
Andrew Scott - Politics, parties and issues in Australia: An introduction
Gideon Haigh - The Racket: how abortion became illegal in Australia
Margot O’Neil - Blind Conscience
Tony Taylor - Denial