From the Director's Desk

• ADB authors were, once again, well represented in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. Congratulations to:

Officer (AO) in the General Division

• Professor John Pearn
• Professor John Warhurst

Member (AM) in the General Division

• Dr Peter Attiwill
• Professor David Horner
• Associate Professor Michael Horsburgh
• Dr Anthony White
• Dr Colin Wrigley

Medal (OAM) in the General Division

• Mr George Brooks
• Associate Professor James Kohen
• Mr Jeremy Long
• Rev Father Brian Maher
• Mrs Judith Murdoch
• Associate Professor Bruce Pennay

• Our congratulations are also extended to ADB authors who won literary awards in the last three months:

• Jacqueline Kent’s biography, An Exacting Heart: The Story of Hephzibah Menuhin, won the 2009 Kibble Literary Award. Jacqueline has written the entry on Menuhin for vol 18 of the ADB.
• Professor Jill Roe won the 2009 Queensland Premier’s Literary Award for History for Stella Miles Franklin: A Biography. Jill was inspired to work on the full-scale biography after writing the ADB entry on Franklin.
• The chair of the ADB Editorial Board, Professor Tom Griffiths, jointly won the 2008 Prime Minister's history prize for his book Slicing the Silence: Voyaging to Antarctic. Tom’s thoughtful essay on the Victorian bushfires, 'We Have Still Not Lived Long Enough' won the 2009 Alfred Deakin Prize for an essay advancing public debate.

• The NCB has received a $30,000 grant from the College of Arts and Social Sciences (ANU) E-Research Committee to create an online obituaries database. ADB author and member of the Commonwealth Working Party, John Farquharson, has generously donated hundreds of obituaries written for the Canberra Times to the project. In time, we hope to include all obituaries of Australians published in newspapers, magazines and bulletins, as well as some that we commission. The database will include fielded searches and should be available on the ADB’s website in the New Year. 

• Do you have any good stories to relate about the ADB or photos of book launches and other events organised by the Dictionary? We are preparing a history of the ADB for the website and are keen to include the reminiscences of those who have been associated with the ADB as paid employees, members of Working Parties or Editorial Boards, or authors. If you would like to participate in the history project please contact Christine Fernon at christine.fernon@anu.edu.au.

• The NCB now boasts three PhD students, the latest being Chris Wallace who started with us in August. Her thesis topic is ‘Julia Gillard: The Politics of Political Biography’. Chris will also be exploring the challenges of writing mid-career biographies. The next round of PhD applications closes on 31 October. For further information about undertaking a PhD or an M Phil at the NCB, contact the Centre’s Director, Professor Melanie Nolan at melanie.nolan@anu.edu.au.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

• 9 November 2009: In association with the Research School of Social Sciences, ANU, and the Museum of Australian Democracy, the NCB is holding a day-long symposium at Old Parliament House on ‘Gender, Politics and Biography’.
• 1 December 2009: The NCB will be celebrating the ADB’s 50th birthday with a symposium on the history and future of the ADB. 

Both events are open to the public and are free. See inside for more details.