Canberra author Christine Helliwell has been shortlisted for the Australian War Memorial's Les Carlyon Literary Prize.
Helliwell's book Semut is one of four up for this year's award, which recognises the best publication in Australian military history, social military history or war history from the past two years.
The book looks into Operation Semut, an Australian secret military operation launched by the organisation popularly known as Z Special Unit in the final months of World War II. Semut has already been named the first runner-up for Templer Medal Book Prize in the United Kingdom, as well as being shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Australian History Prize, the ACT Notable Book Awards, and the Reid Prize.
Also up for the award is Xavier Fowler for Not Playing the Game: Sport and Australia's Great War, Stephen Gapps for Gudyarra: The First Wiradyuri War of Resistance, 1822-1824 and Ben McKelvey for Mosul: Australia's secret war inside the ISIS caliphate.
"The impacts of war have been a strong theme this year, particularly in works dealing with recent conflicts in the Middle East," Australian War Memorial head of military history Karl James said.
"The subject matter ranges from frontier violence to recent conflicts. The bulk of the entries were non-fiction with strong representation from veterans, family historians, journalists and academics."
This is the second time the biennial prize has been awarded, with Stephen Gapps' work The Sydney Wars taking out the inaugural event in 2020.
The prize is named in honour of historian, author and journalist Les Carlyon, who was a member of the Council of the Australian War Memorial from May 2006 until he died in March 2019.
"Les Carlyon was a master storyteller who made a lifelong contribution to both Australian journalism and literature," Australian War Memorial director Matt Anderson said.
"Through his impeccable research and readability, Carlyon brought Australian military history to an entirely new audience. But his passion for military history extended well beyond his writing, having served on the Council of the Australian War Memorial with his unique blend of wisdom and humour for more than a decade.
"The Les Carlyon Literary Prize is a way to support both emerging and established military or war history writers and to find and to encourage the best storytellers in Australia."
The judging panel will consider literary merit, the contribution of the work to understanding the Australian experience of war and conflict, authenticity and credibility, and originality
The winner will be announced at the Australian War Memorial on November 22.
We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on The Canberra Times website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. See our moderation policy here.
