Deborah Conway awarded literary People’s Choice Prize
Mazal Tov to Deborah Conway for being awarded the 2024 Nib People’s Choice Prize for her memoir Book of Life.
Tonight, it was announced that Jewish musician and author Deborah Conway has taken home the 2024 Nib People’s Choice Prize for her memoir Book of Life.
With a major prize of $40,000, the Mark & Evette Moran Nib Literary Award is Waverley Council’s annual celebration of the best in Australian research-based literature.
First presented in 2002, the award is now one of the most prestigious and valuable literary awards in the country, having distributed more than $500,000 directly to deserving authors, including former winners Tim Low, Helen Garner, Gideon Haigh, Clare Wright and Delia Falconer. It remains the only award of its type presented by a local government authority.
Awarded by popular vote, Conway will take home the $4,000 prize after her work collected almost half of the total votes received.
Waverley Mayor, Cr Will Nemesh, said over 500 people from across Australia voted for their favourite shortlisted book to win the People’s Choice Prize.
“It’s a testament to quality of this year’s shortlisted works that so many votes were received,” he said. “Waverley Council is really proud to present the Mark & Evette Moran Nib Literary Awards and encourage this strong engagement with quality literature.
“Congratulations to Deborah Conway! And well done to all this year’s finalists.”
Conway said the win means a lot to her. “A literary prize is significant but after the last very difficult year it is also a balm. The feeling of who I am & where I belong has never been stronger,” she told The AJN.
A no-holds-barred memoir, Book of Life charts the rise and fall – and rise – of one of Australia’s most iconic music performers.
Born in Melbourne, Conway’s career spans over 40 years on the Australian music scene. Her accolades include co-founding the award-winning 1980s Australian pop rock band Do-Ré-Mi – whose smash hit Man Overboard became a feminist anthem, winning the 1992 ARIA Award for Best Female Artist, and releasing more than ten albums with her guitarist and partner, Willy Zygier.
Speaking to The AJN in September 2023 ahead of the book’s release, Conway explained that writing the book kept her busy through the endless Victorian lockdowns.
“Serendipity is a miraculous thing and not to be reined in, so I listened to the muse. Good advice for a songwriter, and an author as it turns out,” Conway recalled. “I sat on the couch through 2020 then 2021 and now, remarkably, I have a book.”
Book of Life was released just days before the October 7 Hamas-led massacre. And ever since, Conway has been outspoken about antisemitism, becoming one of the most vocal Australian artists to speak out against Hamas’s atrocities. As a result, she has been boycotted, cancelled and doxxed.
Conway even wore a large Magen David and dressed in blue and white during the Mushroom Records 50th anniversary concert.
Speaking to The AJN earlier this year, Conway said how she has been treated as she continues to speak out has “not been pleasant”, but given so many people have justified the atrocities of Hamas “those justifications needed to be challenged”.
Conway will also take home the $1,500 Alex Buzo Shortlist Prize, along with this year’s five other shortlisted finalists: Shauna Bostock for Reaching Through Time, Ryan Cropp for Donald Horne, Anna Funder for Wifedom, Melissa Lucashenko for Edenglassie, and Dave Witty for What the Trees See.
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