For the best work of non-fiction by a Tasmanian writer.

Winner

Flight Lines: across the globe on a journey with the astonishing ultramarathon birds by Andrew Darby (Allen & Unwin)

Judges’ comments:

Flight Lines is a compelling account of fragility and endurance. Through a deeply personal lens Andrew Darby brings to life the epic feats of migratory shore birds, and in doing so presents his readers with a call to attention and to action. By tracing the transcontinental flight paths of the unassuming grey plover, Darby charts a history that plays out on a global stage and an evolutionary timescale. A unique blend of practical science, pure awe, and everyday wonder, this is a book that encourages us to see the grand picture of human and animal interconnectedness. From Tasmania to China to the Arctic, through past and present, the flight lines Darby follows reveal a story of vulnerability and hope in an era of uncertainty. Flight Lines is an alarm call, a hymn to citizen science, and an unmistakably Tasmanian text that seeks to provoke material change – both in its readers and the world in which they live.

• Colour and Movement: the life of Claudio Alcorso by Stephenie Cahalan (Forty South Publishing)
• Flight Lines: across the globe on a journey with the astonishing ultramarathon birds by Andrew Darby (Allen & Unwin)
• Imperial Mud: the fight for the Fens by James Boyce (Icon Books)
• Truth-Telling: history, sovereignty and the Uluru Statement by Henry Reynolds (NewSouth)

Judges’ comments on the shortlist

Individually and collectively these books all speak of human connectedness transcending time and place. Anchored in the Tasmanian experience of the authors, these works address great matters of global and national importance through accessible storytelling. They take up important questions of identity, belonging, and inter-generational justice and endurance.

• A Salute to Max Angus: Tasmanian painter by Alison Alexander (Forty South Publishing)
• Colour and Movement: the life of Claudio Alcorso by Stephenie Cahalan (Forty South Publishing)
• Flight Lines: across the globe on journey with the astonishing ultramarathon birds by Andrew Darby (Allen & Unwin)
• Forgotten Corners: essays in search of an island's soul by Pete Hay (Walleah Press)
• Imperial Mud: the fight for the Fens by James Boyce (Icon Books)
• I Shed My Skin: a Furneaux ISLANDS story by Jane Giblin with poetry by Peter Hay (Forty South Publishing)
• On Getting Off: sex and philosophy by Damon Young (Scribe Publications)
• Soil: the incredible story of what keeps the earth, and us, healthy by Matthew Evans (Murdoch Books)
• Toxic: the rotting underbelly of the Tasmanian salmon industry by Richard Flanagan (Penguin Random House Australia)
• Truth-Telling: history, sovereignty and the Uluru Statement by Henry Reynolds (NewSouth)

Judges’ comments on the longlist

This year’s longlist is a bewitching mix of human and more-than-human stories. What unites these entries is the authors’ shared ability to capture a specific moment in times of uncertainty, whether that be in relation to politics, personal practice, or our place in the world.