As violence, terrorism and conflict continue to plague the world, there are many voices calling out for peace. The Sydney Peace Prize honours those voices by honouring individuals or organisations who have shown their dedication to peaceful means that advance global harmony.
Sir Sidney Myer was a long-term chairman and founder of his family’s Australian business empire, the Myer family. To honor Sir Sidney and his passion for art, this award was founded in 1984 as a way to memorialise him and celebrate his life – prizes are given in dance, drama, comedy music opera puppetry.
On 1 August 2024, the 2024 Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize winners were revealed. The first prize is $5000 while two runners-up each receive $750 prizes. The winning story, “Who Rattles the Night?” will be published in Overland magazine while online publication will occur for runners-up stories as judged by Patrick Lenton, Alice Bishop and Sara Saleh.
Sidney Myer was an enthusiastic supporter and patron of performing arts, an avid collector of art, and founded the Myer Foundation as an outlet to fund dance and drama performances; later it expanded to support other forms of artistic expression.
Every year, several essays capture public imagination and earn Sidney awards. This year’s essays often probed the intersection between science and thought; for instance, in The New Republic two intellectual giants such as Steven Pinker and Leon Wieseltier exchanged opinions on where science should fit in modern thought; Pinker took an expansive viewpoint, asserting that contrary to what humanities professors may claim, science provides us insight into almost everything.
Overland magazine and Malcolm Robertson Foundation collaborate to host the Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize, offering outstanding short fiction up to 3000 words loosely themed around travel. This prize seeks exceptional submissions. Overland welcomes writers of any nationality or international background at any stage in their writing careers to participate in this contest. The winning story will be featured in its autumn issue while two runners-up will have their stories published online. Overland subscribers can enter this competition free of charge; an exclusive prize subscription containing four issues of the magazine and access to daily online publication costs $62. For details of how to enter, click here. Please be aware that if your work centres the experiences or voices of marginalized or vulnerable identities, in order to be eligible for consideration for consideration. For more information on the prize and its judging process please click here.
