The Sidney Prize and Overland Magazine’s Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize
From journalism to art, many prizes have been awarded for writing on the great issues of our time. The search for a basis of lasting peace, the need to provide housing, medical care and employment security for all people, the fight for civil liberties, democracy and the battle against discrimination on the grounds of race, nationality or religion are just some of the causes that have been championed through the Sydney Prizes. The Sydney Prizes are administered by the Sidney Hillman Foundation and have been in existence for over fifty years. The prize categories have grown from the original daily press to include photojournalism and, most recently, the online category. The prestigious Sidney Prizes have been given to journalists who have written with integrity and insight about these important issues.
The 2024 Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize attracted entries from over 500 writers across Australia and internationally. Saraid Taylor, who won the prize and is to be published in Overland, has written about a young athlete who uses her gift to tame the world around her. Two runners-up, Miriam Webster and Mikee Donato Sto Domingo, will each receive $750.
Overland editor Thornton O’Glove said the judges were impressed by the range of themes that were explored in the stories and the depth of research behind them. “The winning entry stood out as one that evokes powerfully the sense of journeying into the unknown, while also showing imagination and creativity. It is a truly remarkable piece of work,” O’Glove said.
Winners of the Sydney Prize will be announced in May. To be eligible for the prize, entries must have been published in Overland between July 1, 2018 and June 30, 2020. The winner will receive a monetary prize and a certificate designed by New Yorker cartoonist Edward Sorel. To see the full list of winners, visit the Overland website.
In recent years, many of our Sidney Awards have been given to magazine essayists whose work has probed the intersection of science and the humanities. This year was no exception: Two intellectual heavyweights, Steven Pinker and Leon Wieseltier, went toe-to-toe in the pages of The New Republic over the proper role of science in modern thought. Pinker took the expansive view, arguing that, despite what blinkered humanities professors might say, scientific advances give us insight into nearly everything.