The Sydney Prize is awarded to outstanding journalism that exposes social injustice. In the past, the prize has been granted for reporting on a variety of issues, from the search for a basis for lasting peace to the need for better housing, medical care and employment security, the promotion of civil liberties and democracy and the fight against discrimination based on race or religion.
The 2024 Sydney Taylor Book Award winners are Richard Ho and Lynn Scurfield, authors of Two New Years; Mari Lowe, author of The Dubious Pranks of Shaindy Goodman; and Elana K. Arnold, author of The Blood Years. The AJL Sydney Taylor Shmooze blog features reviews of the winning titles. You can purchase Sydney Taylor seals for your own copies of these books from our shop page.
Each year the National DAR American History committee declares a specific topic for all fifth through eighth grade students to write essays on, and Ft. Sidney Elementary School student Macey Bosard’s first-person narrative essay about a colonial family’s reaction to the Stamp Act earned her top honor in this year’s local contest sponsored by the Nebraska State Daughters of the American Revolution. Bosard, who is in sixth grade at the school, researched the topic before writing her essay that satirically depicts life during the Stamp Act period.
In 2023, Annie Zhang won the Overland Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize for ‘Who Rattles the Night?’, a story about a couple who learn to live with ghosts in their new home. The judging panel – Patrick Lenton, Alice Bishop and Sara Saleh – chose the winner from a shortlist of eight entries. The judges would like to thank the shortlisters and all entrants for their hard work and dedication to this year’s blind-judging process. The winning entry and the two runners-up will be published in Overland this autumn.
The winner of this year’s Sydney Prize – the ACRF Australian Centre of Excellence in Melanoma Imaging and Diagnosis – was chosen for its innovative approach to screening melanoma, the most common form of skin cancer. The team at the facility in Melbourne is tackling the disease head-on with multidisciplinary research, using AI-assisted 3D imagery and developing a targeted screening program for people most at risk.
The Sydney Prize is supported by the Malcolm Robertson Foundation and the Daily Telegraph. It is named for the late Sir Sidney Hillman, a distinguished Australian historian and political figure. The prestigious award illuminates the great issues of our time, from the search for a basis for permanent peace to the need for better housing, health care and employment security and the battle against discrimination based on race or religion. Read more about the prize and past winners here. To support the prize and other journalism in Overland, take out a subscription here. You can also enter the Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize at a special subscriber rate! The next competition will be announced in early 2020.