The Victorian Premier's Prize for Nonfiction, formerly known as the Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction, is a prize category in the annual Victorian Premier's Literary Award. As of 2011 it has a remuneration of 25,000. The winner of this category prize vies with 4 other category winners for overall Victorian Prize for Literature valued at an additional 100,000.
The prize was formerly known as the Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction from inception until 2010 when the awards were re-established under the stewardship of the Wheeler Centre and restarted with new prize amounts and a new name. The Nettie Palmer Prize was valued at 30,000 in 2010. According to the State Library of Victoria which managed the prize from 1997 to 2010, "This prize is offered for a published work of non-fiction. Books consisting principally of photographs or illustrations are ineligible unless the accompanying text is of substantial length."[1] Palmer wrote regularly for numerous newspapers all round Australia. She wrote on a wide range of topics, from environment to cultural events, reviewing all important books being published in Australia, America, Europe and elsewhere.
Winners of the Overall Victorian Prize for Literature have a blue ribbon .
| 2011 | Winner | [2] | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good Living Street | Finalist | |||
| My Blood’s Country | Finalist | |||
| Delusions of Gender | Finalist | |||
| Finalist | ||||
| Into the Woods | Finalist | |||
| 2012 | Winner | [3] [4] | ||
| 1835: The Founding of Melbourne & The Conquest of Australia | Finalist | [5] | ||
| Adelaide | Finalist | |||
| Finalist | ||||
| True North: The Story of Mary and Elizabeth Durack | Finalist | |||
| Her Father's Daughter | Finalist | |||
| 2014 | Forgotten War | Winner | [6] | |
| White Beech | Finalist | [7] [8] | ||
| On Warne | Finalist | |||
| Gardens of Fire: An Investigative Memoir | Finalist | |||
| Boy, Lost: A Family Memoir | Finalist | |||
| Madeleine: A Life of Madeleine St John | Finalist | |||
| NPY Women's Council | Commended: Traditional Healers of Central Australia: Ngangkari | Finalist | ||
| 2015 | Winner | [9] [10] | ||
| Acute Misfortune: The Life and Death of Adam Cullen | Finalist | [11] [12] | ||
| Darwin | Finalist | |||
| Where Song Began | Finalist | |||
| Finalist | ||||
| Finalist | ||||
| 2016 | Something for the Pain | Winner | [13] [14] | |
| and Kendrah Morgan | Modern Love: The Lives of John and Sunday Reed | Finalist | [15] | |
| Thea Astley: Inventing Her Own Weather | Finalist | |||
| Australia’s Second Chance | Finalist | |||
| Second Half First | Finalist | |||
| Mannix | Finalist | |||
| 2017 | Offshore: Behind the wire on Manus and Nauru | Winner | [16] | |
| with Ben Mckelvey | Songs of a War Boy | Finalist | [17] | |
| Finalist | ||||
| with Patricia Drum | Finalist | |||
| Position Doubtful | Finalist | |||
| Finalist | ||||
| 2018 | Winner | [18] [19] | ||
| Finalist | [20] | |||
| Anaesthesia: The Gift of Oblivion and the Mystery of Consciousness | Finalist | |||
| For a Girl: A True Story of Secrets, Motherhood and Hope | Finalist | |||
| Tracker | Finalist | |||
| 2019 | Winner | [21] | ||
| Staying: A Memoir | Finalist | [22] | ||
| Finalist | ||||
| Eggshell Skull | Finalist | |||
| Miss Ex-Yugoslavia | Finalist | |||
| Axiomatic | Finalist | |||
| 2020 | Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia | Winner | [23] [24] | |
| Finalist | [25] | |||
| Finalist | ||||
| Future Histories: What Ada Lovelace, Tom Paine, and the Paris Commune Can Teach Us About Digital Technology | Finalist | |||
| Tell Me Why: The Story of My Life and My Music | Finalist | |||
| Gay’wu Group of Women | Songspirals: Sharing Women's Wisdom of Country Through Songlines | Finalist | ||
| 2021 | Body Count: How Climate Change is Killing Us | Winner | [26] | |
| Show Me Where It Hurts | Finalist | [27] [28] | ||
| Witness: An Investigation into the Brutal Cost of Seeking Justice | Finalist | |||
| and Lynne Kelly | Songlines: The Power and Promise | Finalist | ||
| Blueberries | Finalist | |||
| Fire Country: How Indigenous Fire Management Could Help Save Australia | Finalist | |||
| 2022 | Winner | [29] [30] | ||
| Coming of Age in the War on Terror | Finalist | [31] | ||
| Summertime: Reflections on a Vanishing Future | Finalist | |||
| Black and Blue: A Memoir of Racism and Resilience | Finalist | |||
| Buried Not Dead | Finalist | |||
| Another Day in the Colony | Finalist | |||
| 2023 | Root & Branch: Essays on Inheritance | Winner | [32] [33] [34] | |
| Childhood | Finalist | [35] | ||
| Finalist | ||||
| Finalist | ||||
| People Who Lunch: Essays on Work, Leisure and Loose Living | Finalist | |||
| Our Members Be Unlimited: A Comic about Workers and Their Unions | Finalist | |||
| 2024 | Ellen van Neerven | Personal Score: Sport, culture, identity | Winner | [36] |
| Kris Kneen | Fat Girl Dancing | Finalist | [37] | |
| Antony Loewenstein | The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel exports the technology of occupation around the world | Finalist | ||
| Chris Masters | Flawed Hero: Truth, lies and war crimes | Finalist | ||
| David Marr | Killing for Country: A family story | Finalist | ||
| Jordana Silverstein | Cruel Care: A history of children at our borders | Finalist | ||
| 2025 | Susan Hampton | Anything Can Happen | Finalist | [38] |
| Lucia Osborn-Crowley | The Lasting Harm: Witnessing the Trial of Ghislaine Maxwell | Finalist | ||
| Bonny Cassidy | Finalist | |||
| Clare Wright | Näku Dhäruk The Bark Petitions: How the People of Yirrkala Changed the Course of Australian Democracy | Finalist | ||
| Cassandra Pybus | A Very Secret Trade | Finalist |
| 1985 | Bernard Smith | The Boy Adeodatus : The Portrait of a Lucky Young Bastard | [39] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | John Bryson | Evil Angels | [40] | |
| 1987 | Hugh Stretton | Political Essays | [41] | |
| 1988 | Brian Matthews | Louisa | [42] | |
| 1989 | Paradise Found and Lost | [43] | ||
| 1990 | The Sixpenny Soldier | [44] | ||
| 1991 | Wild Card | |||
| 1992 | Patrick White: A Life | |||
| 1993 | Mr Bligh's Bad Language | |||
| 1994 | Lyrebird Rising: Louise Hanson-Dyer of Oiseau-Lyre 1884-1962 | |||
| 1995 | Georgiana: A Biography of Georgiana McCrae, Painter, Diarist, Pioneer | |||
| 1996 | ||||
| 1997 | Midnight in Sicily | |||
| 1998 | Romulus, My Father | |||
| 1999 | M: The Man Who Became Caravaggio | |||
| 2000 | ||||
| 2001 | Broken Circles: Fragmenting Indigenous Families 1800-2000 | |||
| 2002 | ||||
| 2003 | Broken Song: T.G.H. Strehlow and Aboriginal Possession | [45] | ||
| 2004 | Car Wars: How the Car Won Our Hearts and Conquered Our Cities | [46] | ||
| 2005 | Twilight of Love: Travels with Turgenev | [47] | ||
| 2006 | Margaret Michaelis: Love, Loss and Photography | [48] | ||
| 2007 | Voyages to the South Seas: In Search of Terres Australes | [49] | ||
| 2008 | [50] | |||
| 2009 | [51] | |||
| 2010 | Reading by Moonlight: How Books Saved a Life | [52] |