# Nita Kibble Literary Awards

The Kibble Literary Awards comprise two awards—the Nita B Kibble Literary Award, which recognises the work of an established Australian female writer, and the Dobbie Literary Award, which is for a first published work by a female writer. The Awards recognise the works of women writers of fiction or non-fiction classified as 'life writing'. This includes novels, autobiographies, biographies, literature and any writing with a strong personal element.
The Nita Kibble Literary Awards were established in 1994 by Nita Dobbie, through her will, in honour of her aunt, Nita Kibble (1879–1962), who had raised her from birth after her mother died. Kibble, who was the first woman to be a librarian with the State Library of New South Wales, served the role of Principal Research Librarian from 1919 until retirement in 1943, and was founding member of the Australian Institute of Librarians. Dobbie followed her aunt into the library profession, and believed there was a need to foster women's writing in the community. The awards are currently worth A$35,000 in total.
The Trust established for the award is managed by Perpetual Limited, and the award is administered in association with the State Library of New South Wales.
Both awards were presented annually from their inception until 2016, when they were changed to biennial presentation. In 2020, no awards were presented "due to a review of the funding trust and the award processes."

## Nita B Kibble Literary Award honorees

Nita B Kibble Literary Award winners and finalists :
| Year | Author | Title | Result |
| 1994 | Marion Halligan | Lovers' Knots: A Hundred-Year Novel | Winner |
| 1994 | Joan Dugdale | The Gripping Beast | Finalist |
| 1994 | Evelyn Crawford | Over My Tracks | Finalist |
| 1994 | Hazel Rowley | Christina Stead Bio | Finalist |
| 1995 | Drusilla Modjeska | The Orchard | Winner |
| 1995 | Rita Cynthia Huggins and Jackie Huggins | Auntie Rita | Finalist |
| 1995 | Simone Lazaroo | The World Waiting to be Made | Finalist |
| 1995 | Brenda Niall | Georgiana | Finalist |
| 1995 | Susan Varga | Heddy and me | Finalist |
| 1996 | Judy Cassab | Judy Cassab: Diaries | Winner |
| 1996 | Debra Adelaide | Hotel Albatross | Finalist |
| 1996 | Hanifa Deen | Caravanserai: Journey among Australian Muslims | Finalist |
| 1996 | Penelope Nelson | Penny Dreadful | Finalist |
| 1996 | Mandy Sayer | The Cross | Finalist |
| 1997 | Helen Garner | True Stories: Selected Non-Fiction | Winner |
| 1997 | Glenda Adams | The Tempest of Clemenza | Finalist |
| 1997 | Anne Coombs | Sex and Anarchy | Finalist |
| 1997 | Suzanne Falkiner | Ethel | Finalist |
| 1997 | Ethel Sue Woolfe | Leaning Towards Infinity | Finalist |
| 1998 | Roberta Sykes | Snake Cradle | Winner |
| 1998 | Barbara Blackman | Glass After Glass: Autobiographical Reflections | Finalist |
| 1998 | Sally Dingo | Dingo | Finalist |
| 1998 | Delia Falconer | The Service of Clouds | Finalist |
| 1998 | Anne Whitehead | Paradise Mislaid: In Search of the Australian Tribe of Paraguay | Finalist |
| 1999 | Geraldine Brooks | Foreign Correspondence: A Pen Pal's Journey From Down Under to All Over | Winner |
| 1999 | Frances De Groen | Xavier Herbert | Finalist |
| 1999 | Kathy Golski | Watched by Ancestors | Finalist |
| 1999 | Marion Halligan | The Golden Dress | Finalist |
| 1999 | Rowena Ivers | The Spotted Skin | Finalist |
| 2000 | Drusilla Modjeska | Stravinsky's Lunch | Winner |
| 2000 | Thea Astley | Drylands | Finalist |
| 2000 | Kate Grenville | Idea of Perfection | Finalist |
| 2000 | Valerie Lawson | Out of the Sky She Came | Finalist |
| 2000 | Amy Witting | Isobel on the Way to the Corner Shop | Finalist |
| 2001 | Inga Clendinnen | Tiger's Eye: A Memoir | Winner |
| 2001 | Ruth Cracknell | Journey from Venice | Finalist |
| 2002 | Jacqueline Kent | A Certain Style: Beatrice Davis, a Literary Life | Winner |
| 2002 | Marion Halligan | The Fog Garden | Finalist |
| 2002 | Hilary McPhee | Other People's Words | Finalist |
| 2003 | Gail Jones | Black Mirror | Winner |
| 2003 | Kate Lyons | The Water Underneath | Finalist |
| 2003 | Gaby Naher | The Truth About My Fathers | Finalist |
| 2003 | Brenda Niall | The Boyds: A Family Biography | Finalist |
| 2004 | Fiona Capp | That Oceanic Feeling | Winner |
| 2004 | Gail Bell | Shot | Finalist |
| 2004 | Anne Summers | The End of Equality | Finalist |
| 2005 | Gay Bilson | Plenty | Winner |
| 2005 | Helen Garner | Joe Cinque's Consolation | Finalist |
| 2005 | Susan Johnson | The Broken Book | Finalist |
| 2006 | Brenda Walker | The Wing of Night | Winner |
| 2006 | Kate Grenville | The Secret River | Finalist |
| 2006 | Heather Rose | The Butterfly Man | Finalist |
| 2007 | Deborah Robertson | Careless | Winner |
| 2007 | Inga Clendinnen | Agamemnon's Kiss | Finalist |
| 2007 | Kathryn Heyman | Captain Starlight's Apprentice | Finalist |
| 2007 | Gail Jones | Dreams of Speaking | Finalist |
| 2007 | Sylvia Martin | Ida Leeson: A Life | Finalist |
| 2008 | Carol Lefevre | Nights in the Asylum | Winner |
| 2008 | Gail Jones | Sorry | Finalist |
| 2008 | Mireille Juchau | Burning In | Finalist |
| 2009 | Jacqueline Kent | An Exacting Heart: The Story of Hephzibah Menuhin | Winner |
| 2009 | Georgia Blain | Births Deaths and Marriages: True Tales | Finalist |
| 2009 | Kathleen Stewart | The After Life: A memoir | Finalist |
| 2010 | Shirley Walker | The Ghost at the Wedding | Winner |
| 2010 | Josephine Emery | The Real Possibility of Joy | Finalist |
| 2010 | Kristina Olsson | The China Garden | Finalist |
| 2011 | Brenda Walker | Reading by Moonlight | Winner |
| 2011 | Delia Falconer | Sydney | Finalist |
| 2011 | Annette Stewart | Barbara Hanrahan: A Biography | Finalist |
| 2012 | Gail Jones | Five Bells | Winner |
| 2012 | Gillian Mears | Foal's Bread | Finalist |
| 2012 | Charlotte Wood | Animal People | Finalist |
| 2013 | Annah Faulkner | The Beloved | Winner |
| 2013 | Michelle de Kretser | Questions of Travel | Finalist |
| 2013 | Cate Kennedy | Like a House on Fire | Finalist |
| 2014 | Kristina Olsson | Boy Lost: A Family Memoir | Winner |
| 2014 | Debra Adelaide | Letter to George Clooney | Finalist |
| 2014 | Melissa Lucashenko | Mullumbimby | Finalist |
| 2015 | Joan London | The Golden Age | Winner |
| 2015 | Sophie Cunningham | Warning: The Story of Cyclone | Finalist |
| 2015 | Helen Garner | This House of Grief | Finalist |
| 2016 | Fiona Wright | Small Acts of Disappearance | Winner |
| 2016 | Elizabeth Harrower | A Few Days in the Country: And Other Stories | Finalist |
| 2016 | Drusilla Modjeska | Second Half First | Finalist |
| 2017 | No award presented | | |
| 2018 | Fiona McFarlane | The High Places | Winner |
| 2018 | Maxine Beneba Clarke | The Hate Race | Finalist |
| 2018 | Michelle de Kretser | The Life to Come | Finalist |
| 2018 | Helen Garner | Everywhere I Look | Finalist |

## Dobbie Literary Award honorees

Dobbie Literary Award winners and finalists :
| Year | Author | Title | Result |
| 1994 | Nola Fisher | For Some Reason | Winner |
| 1994 | Mary Burbidge | My Daughter, My Forever Baby | Finalist |
| 1995 | Maria Cresa | Lapping, Licking and Skinny | Finalist |
| 1996 | Alana Valentine | H Is for Homo | Finalist |
| 1997 | Pepe Trevor | Listening for Small Sounds | Winner |
| 1997 | Fiona Capp | Night Surfing | Finalist |
| 1997 | Catherine Ford | Dirt | Finalist |
| 1997 | Connie Nungulla | When You Grow Up | Finalist |
| 1997 | Margot Orum | Fairytales in Reality | Finalist |
| 1998 | Melissa Lucashenko | Steam Pigs | Winner |
| 1999 | Eva Sallis | Hiam | Winner |
| 2000 | Margo Kingston | Off the Rails: The Pauline Hanson Trip | Winner |
| 2001 | Kim Mahood | Craft for a Dry lake | Winner |
| 2001 | Mischa Merz | Bruising | Finalist |
| 2001 | Elizabeth Stead | The Fishcastle | Finalist |
| 2001 | Hsu Ming Teo | Love and Vertigo | Finalist |
| 2002 | Julie Marcus | The Indomitable Miss Pink: A life in Anthropology | Winner |
| 2002 | Susan Addison | Mother Lode: Stories of Home Life & Home Death | Finalist |
| 2003 | Shirley Painter | The Bean Patch | Winner |
| 2003 | Saskia Beudel | Borrowed Eyes | Finalist |
| 2003 | Rebe Taylor | Unearthed | Finalist |
| 2004 | Danielle Wood | The Alphabet of Light and Dark | Winner |
| 2004 | Phyllis McDuff | A Story of Light & Dark | Finalist |
| 2004 | Heather Tyler | Asylum: Voices Behind the Razor Wire | Finalist |
| 2005 | Paulette Gittins | The Secret World of Annette Robinson | Winner |
| 2005 | Sarah Armstrong | Salt Rain | Finalist |
| 2005 | Kimberley Starr | The Kingdom Where Nobody Dies | Finalist |
| 2006 | Carrie Tiffany | Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living | Winner |
| 2006 | Debra Drake | An Uncommon Dialogue | Finalist |
| 2006 | Kate Holden | In My Skin | Finalist |
| 2006 | Wendy James | Out of the Silence | Finalist |
| 2006 | Mary Ellen Jordan | Balanda, My Year in Arnheim Land | Finalist |
| 2007 | Tara June Winch | Swallow the Air | Winner |
| 2007 | Susan Duncan | Salvation Creek | Finalist |
| 2007 | Ruth Ritchie | Waterlemon | Finalist |
| 2008 | Karen Foxlee | The Anatomy of Wings | Winner |
| 2008 | Emma Hardman | Nine Parts Water | Finalist |
| 2008 | Jessica White | A Curious Intimacy | Finalist |
| 2009 | Claire Thomas | Fugitive Blue | Winner |
| 2009 | Darleen Bungey | Arthur Boyd: A Life | Finalist |
| 2009 | Toni Jordan | Addition | Finalist |
| 2010 | Deborah Forster | The Book of Emmett | Winner |
| 2010 | Karen Hitchcock | Little White Slips | Finalist |
| 2010 | Robyn Mundy | The Nature of Ice | Finalist |
| 2011 | Kristel Thornell | Night Street | Winner |
| 2011 | Lara Fergus | My Sister Chaos | Finalist |
| 2011 | G.L. Osborne | Come Inside | Finalist |
| 2012 | Favel Parrett | Past the Shallows | Winner |
| 2012 | Leah Swann | Bearings | Finalist |
| 2012 | Amy T.Matthews | End of the Night Girl | Finalist |
| 2013 | Lily Chan | Toyo: A Memoir | Winner |
| 2013 | Romy Ash | Floundering | Finalist |
| 2013 | Courtney Collins | The Burial | Finalist |
| 2014 | Kate Richards | Madness: A Memoir | Winner |
| 2014 | Fiona McFarlane | The Night Guest | Finalist |
| 2014 | Jill Stark | High Sobriety: My Year Without Booze | Finalist |
| 2015 | Ellen van Neerven | Heat and Light | Winner |
| 2015 | Emily Bitto | The Strays | Finalist |
| 2015 | Christine Piper | After Darkness | Finalist |
| 2016 | Lucy Treloar | Salt Creek | Winner |
| 2016 | Shirley Barrett | Rush Oh! | Finalist |
| 2016 | Magda Szubanski | Reckoning: A Memoir | Finalist |
| 2018 | Sarah Krasnostein | The Trauma Cleaner | Winner |
| 2018 | Madelaine Dickie | Troppo | Finalist |
| 2018 | Micheline Lee | The Healing Party | Finalist |