The Sidney Prize – for magazine essays
This annual award is a celebration of long-form magazine articles that have narrative drive and social impact. It is awarded to those that best embody the values of the magazine, namely integrity and originality.
The Prize is a national recognition of excellence in undergraduate writing, and is not restricted to students majoring or minoring in English. It is presented annually by a committee of alumni and friends of Professor Sidney Cox, who taught English at Dartmouth from 1927 to 1952.
It is given for that piece of writing which most nearly embodies those standards of integrity and originality that Professor Cox set for himself and for his students. This is a great way to encourage undergraduate writing of the highest quality.
In an age of zipless, electronic media, the idea is to celebrate long-form articles that have narrative drive and social impact. In keeping with these standards, the prize is not given for any article which appears in The New York Times or for any other printed magazine.
Several students in the Sidney community schools have recently won awards for their writing. The first-place winner, KC Sparks, was awarded a cash prize of $500 for her essay “What the Flag Means to Me”. Lawson Rinne and Kowa White also received cash prizes for their essays.
The award is sponsored by the American Legion Post 128 in Sidney, whose commander, Gary Whipple, recently presented the awards. These essays are a powerful reminder of the value of education in our society.
This year’s judges were Mirandi Riwoe, Alice Robinson and Mykaela Saunders. They selected eight shortlisted pieces from over 400 entries. The winning story will receive $5000 and be published in the autumn 2021 issue of Overland. The two runners-up will receive $750 each.
Overland congratulates the winners and the shortlisted writers. We hope this competition will stimulate creative writing in Australian literature.
We wish the winners every success in their future writing endeavors. Overland sincerely thanks these outstanding writers for their exceptional work.
Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize – Overland
Established in 2007, and supported by the Malcolm Robertson Foundation, the Overland Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize seeks powerful and original short fiction of up to 3000 words themed loosely around the notion of travel. This prize is open to writers at any stage of their career and is judged by Mirandi Riwoe, Alice Robertson and Mykaela Saunders.
It is a wonderful honour to be able to help select the winner of this prestigious award. We will be publishing the winning story and judges’ notes in our autumn 2022 issue, with the two runner-up stories published online.
The winner of this prize is a young writer who has demonstrated a remarkable ability to capture the essence of a place, time and culture. It is an opportunity for this talented young writer to gain the attention of the literary world.
The Sydney Peace Prize, the only international prize for peace in Australia, is awarded to those who offer an Australian approach to peace. The 2021-22 Sydney Peace Prize was awarded to the Uluru Statement from the Heart, which calls for a First Nations voice enshrined in the Constitution. It was voted the winner by over 200 community nominations. Teela Reid, a First Nations Lawyer in Residence at the University of Sydney Law School, was proud to be part of this win and to see it celebrated by the Australian public.
