Delighted and surprised is the way Castlemaine writer Alex Miller has described seeing his debut work of non-fiction shortlisted for the National Biography Awards.
Late last week Miller, already much celebrated and awarded for his fictional works, learnt that his first published non-fiction book, Max, had been shortlisted for the prestigious awards, which, with a prize pool of $42,000 are the nation’s richest for biographical writing and memoir.
“It was most unexpected because the book was so far from being a conventional biography,” Miller told the Express.
“Really delighted, deeply honoured and surprised because Max is my only work of non-fiction.”
Miller is the award-winning author of 12 novels and a collection of essays and stories but with Max he took a step into new territory, paying homage to Max Blatt, a Polish Jew and union organiser who opposed Hitler’s National Socialism, was imprisoned and tortured, before escaping after World War II to China and finally Australia.
In shortlisting the work, the judges commented that “the book is a testament to friendship — or perhaps to love — as much as a formal biography.
“The writing is contemplative, moving and engaged, and of the standard one would expect of a writer of Miller’s stature,” they wrote.
Max has been shortlisted alongside Emily Clements’ The Lotus Eaters, Andrew Kwong’s One Bright Moon, Cassandra Pybus’s Truganini, Archie Roach’s Tell Me Why and Margaret Simons’ Penny Wong: Passion and Principle.
Miller told the Express that since the publication of Max last August, he had since been busy working on another book.
He said the result, entitled The Brief Affair of Doctor Frances Egan, was now scheduled for publication in the latter half of next year.
“It was inspired by visits to the Victoria University where my wife, Stephanie, was working,” he said.
“I have returned to my first love of fiction writing.”
The Castlemaine writer will now have to wait until later this month to discover how Max ultimately fares in the National Biography Awards 2021.
