National biography award 2011 super

Australian literary award

The National Biography Award, established in Australia in , is awarded for the best published work of biographical or autobiographical writing by an Australian.

It aims "to encourage the highest standards of writing biography and autobiography and to promote public interest in those genres".^[1] It was initially awarded every two years, but from it has been awarded annually.

Its administration was taken over by the State Library of New South Wales in

History of the Award

It was originally endowed by private benefactor, Dr. Geoffrey Cains, and the original prize money was $12, In , Cains said of endowing the award that "I wanted to give back to literature something, it had given me so much; besides, philanthropy in this country is so overlooked and diminished".^[2] In , the prize money was increased to $20, with the support of Michael Crouch.^[3]Belinda Hutchinson, former President of the Library