Helen Ennis won the A$25,000 (US$23,300) National Biography Award in Australia for Max Dupain: A Portrait, Books+Publishing reported. The book explores "the complexities and contradictions of the man who produced Australia's most well-known image, the Sunbaker, and examines the sources of his creativity," according to State Library of New South Wales.
Chair of judges Sylvia Martin said the winning title was chosen as "an exceptional example of the biographer's craft. Elegantly structured and written, it weaves Max Dupain's life and work into a complex whole. Interspersed microchapters accompanying carefully curated images illuminate not only the range and originality of his photography but also aspects of his character. This biography of a major 20th-century Australian photographer will be read long into the 21st century."
Micaela Sahhar won the A$5,000 (about US$3,545) Michael Crouch Award for a Debut Work for Find Me at the Jaffa Gate: An Encyclopaedia of a Palestinian Family. Judges praised the memoir's "exceptional synthesis of scholarship, imagination and literary craft, and profound contribution to contemporary life writing."