Announcing the winner of The Russell Prize for Humour Writing 2023 ($10,000)
Martin McKenzie-Murray has won the $10,000 biennial Russell Prize for Humour Writing for his “savage, dark and uproariously funny” satirical memoir The Speechwriter.
The judges – Wendy Harmer, Rawah Arjah and Alistar Baldwin – applauded McKenzie-Murray’s fictional debut for its dazzling wordplay and sheer inventiveness: “Forget every satirical political memoir you have ever read. The Speechwriter is here to re-invent the genre in a time where politics comes to us in fractals of the unreliable, shameless, self-serving, deluded and absurd.
Readers are thrust into the world of former speechwriter to the PM, Tony Beaverbrook who, from his prison cell, pens his memoir while trying to figure out how it all went wrong.
Announcing the winner of the Humour Writing for Young People Award 2023 ($5,000)
Five youth judges from schools across NSW have selected renowned children's author Lian Tanner as the 2023 winner for Rita's Revenge - an hilarious mystery story about Rita a poet, outcast and duck who is out for revenge against a scruffy chicken called Clara.
Presented by the State Library of NSW, the Russell Prize was established thanks to the late Peter Wentworth Russell.
2023 Judging Panel
Wendy Harmer
Panel Chair
In a career spanning four decades, Wendy has found success as a journalist, columnist, radio broadcaster, TV host, author, playwright and comic performer.
A former political journalist, Wendy ran away with the circus in the 80s and forged a career in comedy at the Edinburgh Festival, London’s West End and on stages in Ireland, the US and all over Australia. Wendy was a pioneer for women in media as MC of ABC TV’s The Big Gig and as the headliner in radio 2Day FM’s Morning Crew which dominated Sydney radio ratings for 11 years.
She holds a Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) from Macquarie University and is the author of some 30 fiction books for children, teens and women. She has also written plays, an opera libretto and has been a prolific columnist for many magazines and newspapers, most notably as Editor In Chief of her own site for women, The Hoopla.
Most recently Wendy was co-host of the breakfast programme with Robbie Buck on ABC Sydney.
Rawah Arja
Rawah Arja is an acclaimed writer and teacher from Western Sydney. Her first YA book, The F Team, was published by Giramondo and has been shortlisted for many awards including the Ethel Turner Prize for Young Adult Literature as well as for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award. Her writing has featured in Second City: Essays From Western Sydney, Arab, Australian, Other, SBS Voices and at the Sydney and Melbourne Writer’s Festival. She currently teaches creative writing workshops around Australia.
Alistair Baldwin
Alistair Baldwin is a writer and comedian based in Naarm / Melbourne.
He has written for ABC's The Weekly, Hard Quiz, Get Krack!n and At Home Alone Together, and is one of eight writers behind the upcoming SBS anthology series Erotic Stories. In 2022, Alistair made his directorial debut alongside Madeleine Gottlieb on the SBS Digital Original Latecomers.
His first play Telethon Kid was shortlisted for the 2022 Griffin Award, and will have its debut run at Malthouse Theatre in 2023, and his short story Hippotherapy is featured in the Growing Up Disabled In Australia anthology.
About the Prize
Light or dark, fun or farce, published works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and collections of short stories by Australian writers will be considered for the Russell Prize.
The Humour Writing for Young People Award is offered for a work promoting humour and championing laughter aimed at primary school level readers (5-12 years).
The Russell Prize for Humour Writing, was established through a generous donation to the State Library of NSW Foundation by the late Peter Wentworth Russell, a farmer and businessman remembered for his appreciation of humour.
The Russell Prize is the only award for humour writing in Australia and one of few in the world. It takes its place alongside the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize in the UK, the Thurber Prize for American Humour and the Leacock Memorial Medal for Canadian Humour. The prize marks a long overdue acknowledgment of the genre in Australia, and is set to promote public interest in humour writing just as its prestigious international counterparts have done.
GUIDELINES
Guidelines
For more information please contact the Senior Project Officers, Awards.
Email: awards@sl.nsw.gov.au
Telephone: (02) 9273 1582 or (02) 9273 1767
News
Blogs
Podcasts