The Sidney Award and Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize 2020
The Sidney Award is given monthly to an outstanding piece of socially conscious journalism published in the previous month. Nominations can be for either one’s own work or someone else’s; the deadline is the last day of each month. Winners receive a $500 honorarium and a certificate designed by New Yorker cartoonist Edward Sorel.
The prize, named for the newspaper columnist who championed the power of journalism to change minds, was established in 1984 by the trustees of the Malcolm Robertson Foundation and is administered by the Sydney Morning Herald. It honours journalism that illuminates the most important issues of our time, such as the search for a basis for lasting peace, the quest for better housing, medical care and employment security, the struggle against poverty and inequality and the battle for civil liberties, democracy and the defense of academic freedom.
During the summer and fall of 2020, intellectual heavyweights Hilton Als writing for The New Yorker and Ed Yong writing for The Atlantic went head-to-head in a fascinating debate over the role of science in modern thought. Both sides of the argument had their merits, but the debate was dominated by a common theme: that science provides insight into nearly everything, and that, despite what blinkered humanities professors might believe, it does so in ways that are open to humanistic scrutiny.
Winners of the 2024 Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize will be announced on Friday, 23 February. This year’s judges are Patrick Lenton, Alice Bishop and Sara Saleh. The first prize is worth $5000 and publication in Overland, while two runners-up will be published online alongside the autumn edition. The competition is open to writers nationally and internationally at any stage in their career.
The 2023 Sidney Hillman Prize has been awarded to Dr Emily Michelson, ‘Catholic Spectacle and Rome’s Jews: Early Modern Conversion and Resistance’ (University of St Andrews Press, 2022). The annual Hillman Prize is presented by the Sidney Hillman Foundation in memory of journalist and activist Sidney Hillman, who died in 1988. It honors journalists, writers and public figures who pursue social justice and public policy for the common good.
What kind of work do you think is most worthy of the Sidney?
We are especially interested in reading pieces that tackle themes of marginalisation and vulnerability. Please note that the judging panel takes into consideration whether your piece takes up the voice or experience of a particular group, for example Aboriginal people, the disabled, or migrants and refugees. If you write about a group that isn’t represented, we encourage you to consider nominating it for the next round.
For details on how to enter, read the submission guidelines.
Overland is proud to announce the shortlist for the 2023 Neilma Sidney Prize for short fiction. The winner, Annie Zhang, will be published in Overland, while the two runner-ups will be published online alongside our autumn issue. The judges were pleased to see a wide range of styles and themes in the submissions.