The University of Queensland Non-Fiction Book Award

Bullet, Paper, Rock: A Memoir of Words and Wars  - Winner

Abbas El-Zein (Upswell Publishing)

Judges' comments: 

A lyrical reflection on childhood in a Lebanon engulfed by conflict and divided by the multiple consequences of colonial occupation, El-Zein’s memoir moves musically between his experiences as an adult in the UK, France and Australia, and the war-torn streets of the Beirut of his youth. His is a rare voice – gentle, warm and humorous yet precise in its forensic eye for the details that resonate. 

Deep Water: The World In the Ocean

James Bradley (Hamish Hamilton Penguin Random House)

Judges' comments: 

Bradley’s odyssey across and through the history and geography of the ocean is as deep and wide as his subject. This is an ambitious work that is continually alive to the tidal resonances of the sea as foundational to human experience and existence, a conduit of culture and bellwether of an impending climate catastrophe. 

Monument

Bonny Cassidy (Giramondo Publishing)

Judges' comments: 

This book is a reflection on the devastations of settlement, the silences imposed by colonial history and the enduring power of witness. Monument adeptly mixes multiple genres to move beyond family memoir and conjure a radical new approach to history. 

The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World

Antony Loewenstein (Scribe Publications)

Judges' comments: 

This thoroughly researched account is a timely examination of the many crossroads that link occupation with the ongoing commercialisation of the military technologies of surveillance and control that are exported for profit across the world. 

Personal Score: Sport, Culture, Identity

Ellen van Neerven (University of Queensland Press)

Judges' comments: 

From an initial childhood obsession with soccer, Personal Score begins with the struggles of the writer to play the game they love. The book moves beyond this into a wider meditation on the multiple intersections of race, sexuality and identity that are woven into the fabric of Australian sport.