A sidney prize is an award given to individuals or organisations that have made a significant contribution to humanity. These awards are often presented at prestigious events and can include financial rewards. There are also a number of awards that recognise the efforts of students. These are usually awarded to those who have achieved high academic achievement. The Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize is an award that is given to the winner of a short story competition. This competition is open to all Overland readers and subscribers, and is judged blind. The winning entry will receive a $500 honorarium, a bottle of union-made wine, and a certificate designed by New Yorker cartoonist Edward Sorel.
The Hillman Foundation has been honouring journalists for investigative reporting and deep storytelling since 1950. Past winners of the Sidney Prize include Jane Mayer’s report on Dick Cheney’s violations of domestic and international law; John Hersey’s journalism on the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II; and the work of investigative journalist and co-founder of The New York Times, Ben Bradlee, for his uncovering of the Watergate scandal.
Winners of the Sidney Prize are chosen by an independent panel based on their work’s ability to “inspire and enlighten”, and their potential to continue making an impact into the future. The winners will be honoured at a special ceremony held in the Sydney Town Hall on 30 June 2023.
Each year the University of Sydney awards the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards to eight Australian artists. The awards recognise the important role that performing arts play in affirming Australia’s sense of identity and community spirit. The awards are decided on a national basis and each nominee is assessed on the individual merits of their performance and their capacity to contribute to Australian society through the performing arts into the future.
The Australian Literary Review has awarded its 2023 Sidney Prize to Annie Zhang for her story ‘Who Rattles the Night?’, published in the Summer edition of Overland. The judges, Patrick Lenton, Alice Bishop and Sara Saleh, selected the winning story from a shortlist of eight pieces, and two runners-up. The winner was announced on Wednesday and will be published in the 2023 edition of the magazine. Zhang lives on unceded Wangal land and has written for Island, Kill Your Darlings and the Big Issue. She was a WestWords Western Sydney Emerging Writer Fellow in 2019.
The Andrew Gemant Memorial Prize is awarded annually to physicists who have made contributions to the cultural, artistic, or humanistic aspects of physics through publications, papers, lectures, or works that connect art, media and literature with physics. The selection committee chose this year’s recipient, physicist Sidney Perkowitz, for his tireless efforts to connect the public with physics through a variety of means. This includes bestselling books, frequent media appearances as both speaker and media personality, and his ongoing commitment to connecting art, media and literature with physics. This is the second time that he has received the prize.