For a century, the Sidney Prize has rewarded the craft of long-form writing. In this age of Twitter and short attention spans, the prizes celebrate work that takes time, care and thought to deliver big ideas with narrative drive. These essays show us new ways to understand the world around us.
This year’s winners are a diverse group of writers who have taken on some of the biggest issues facing our country. One reveals how an obscure law could help keep Americans safe, another explains why libraries are increasingly important spaces for young people and the third explores the complex relationship between money and morality.
The winner of the 19-24 category (up to 2000 words) will receive a $1,000 cash prize and spend a day in The Sydney Morning Herald’s newsroom. Two runners-up will each receive $500 and a 12-month digital subscription.
Awarded in memory of Professor Philip Sidney Ardern, this prize aims to promote the study of Old and Middle English literature. The prize committee considers any work from these fields that most closely meets the professor’s wide range of literary interests.
Dr Clare Jackson is a former Junior Research Fellow at the College and has authored an acclaimed book on royalist ideas in seventeenth-century Scotland. She is currently a Senior Tutor and Walter Grant Scott Fellow at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge, where she specialises in seventeenth-century Scottish history.
Founded in 2006, the Hillman Foundation is a left-of-center organization that annually awards monetary prizes for journalism and public service. Among the previous winners are journalists for The New York Times and The Washington Post and activists who helped end the coal industry in Pennsylvania. The current president of the Hillman Foundation is Bruce Raynor, a former leader of Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, the union that became Unite Here and later merged with the SEIU to become Workers United.
In this age of shortened attention spans and “fake news”, the Sidney Prize honors the power and importance of long form journalism. The prizes are designed to recognise works that demonstrate craft and social impact, and to give emerging writers a platform to present their ideas.
To submit your piece to the competition, click here. Enter by midnight Monday 2 October to have your essay considered by judges including senior Herald editors and Tara June Winch. Writers must be Australian residents aged below 24 to be eligible.
