The Sidney Prize is one of the most prestigious prizes in Australia. Established by the Australian government in 1961, it recognises excellence in research, writing and performance in Australian theatre, dance, opera and musical composition.
The award is presented on a national basis and all nominations are considered by a Judging Committee. Nominations open in September and October each year.
In the history of Australian performing arts, there are few other awards that have been more important in defining our identity as a nation than the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards. Nominations are based on a consideration of an artist’s or group’s contribution to Australia through the performing arts, and on how that contribution has affected Australia in the past and will continue to do so in the future.
Among the many distinguished winners of the Sidney Prize are the National Geographic Society and The Nation Magazine, who won in 2011; CMD, The New York Times and Bloomberg, who won in 2012; ProPublica, which won in 2013; and Slate, which won in 2014. Other prizes awarded include the Sydney University Medal for Literary Achievement, the Royal Historical Society’s John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship and the Goldsmiths’ Scholarship at the London School of Economics.
Aside from these major prizes, there are also numerous smaller awards and honors. In 2013, for example, the Mercer University Spencer B. King Center for Southern Studies awarded the Thomas Robinson Prize for Southern Literature to renowned poet, author and professor Nikky Finney.
To learn more about the award, visit: A href=”http://southernstudies.mercer.edu/news/2011/03/21″>http://southernstudies.mercer.edu/news/2011/03/21/a>
The prize, which is administered by the Sidney Hillman Foundation, honours Dr. Sidney Hillman, a Yale chemistry professor who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discovery of RNase P. He was a pioneer in the study of RNA, which has now become the foundation for a wide range of medical and biochemical discoveries.
This prize is awarded to an outstanding undergraduate senior or graduate student majoring in history, and is based on a student’s performance during his or her senior year of study. The prize is open to students from colleges and universities in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma and South Dakota.
To learn more about the award, and to read the winning entries, visit: A href=”http://southernstudies.mercer.edu/news/2011/03/22″>http://southernstudies.mercer.edu/news/2011/03/22/a>
Aside from the award, there are several other prizes and honors available for submitting work to Overland. A prize of $100 is offered annually for the best piece of undergraduate writing submitted in competition to Overland’s Annual Writing Contest.
In addition to the Sidney Prize, the Mercer University Spencer B. Kings Center for Southern Studies also awards the Thomas Robinson Prize for Southern Literature to the author of a work of fiction, poetry or creative nonfiction that explores the South. The prize is funded by contributions from the Center for Southern Studies and is named in honor of a Mercer University alumnus, whose name carries great meaning to the university’s faculty, students and alumni.