The Ashurst Business Literature Prize is an annual award
established to encourage and recognise the highest standards of
literary commentary on Australian business and financial affairs.
Launched in 2004 by Ashurst Australia and the State Library of NSW,
the Prize aims to promote the highest standards in business writing
targeted at the general reader. The $30,000 Prize is now
acknowledged as being Australia's most important award for business
literature.
Purpose of the Prize
The Ashurst Business Literature Prize endeavours to:
- encourage business and finance writing and commentary of the
highest quality: writing that brings with it the richness that can
come from detailed research
- stimulate those writers with a knowledge of Australia's business
life and to encourage their continued production of insightful,
well researched books that can be easily digested by the general
reader
- enable all Australians and the general reader to be better informed
about Australia's commercial life and its participants
- add another dimension to Australia's intellectual and cultural
life.
2011 winner announced
Renowned journalist and author Trevor Sykes has won this year's
Ashurst Business Literature Prize in Australia for Six Months
of Panic: How the Global Financial Crisis Hit Australia (Allen
& Unwin).
Six Months of Panic delves into what has now become known
as the GFC. Sykes offers insights into the wave of panic that began
with the subprime crisis in America and flowed with tsunami-like
force across Europe, Asia and Australia.
Sykes' book was announced the winner from a strong shortlist of
four books, including:
- Anna Krien - Into the Woods: The Battle for Tasmania's
Forests, Black Inc.
- Charles Massy - Breaking the Sheep's Back: The Shocking True
Story of the Decline and Fall of the Australian Wool Industry,
University of Queensland Press
- Trevor Sykes - Six Months of Panic: How the Global Financial
Crisis Hit Australia, Allen & Unwin
- Suzanne Welborn - Freehills: A History of Australia's First
National Law Firm, NewSouth Publishing.
Sykes received his prize from well-known sport and business
journalist and author Gideon Haigh, guest speaker at the special
award dinner held in our Sydney office on 15 March 2012.
For more information view the State Library of NSW media release.