The Voice to Parliament Handbook by Thomas Mayo and Kerry O'Brien has won Book of the Year at the 2024 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs).
The book, published in the lead-up to the 2023 Voice to Parliament referendum, also took out the General Non-Fiction Book of the Year and Social Impact Book of the Year.
Mayo, an Indigenous leader and one of the signatories of the Uluru Statement of the Heart, told ABC RN Breakfast in 2023 how he invited O'Brien to create a simple guide to the referendum to address misinformation that plagued the campaign.
"I thought a handbook — something simple that people could hold onto, pass around and share with others to help them find the truth — would be important," he said.
The awards acknowledged in a statement that even though the Voice to Parliament was voted down, the guide "stands as a poignant reminder of a significant moment in Australia's history".
O'Brien, a Walkley Award-winning journalist and former host of The 7.30 Report and Four Corners on ABC TV, explained why he was eager to work with Mayo on the project:
"When I see something as important as The Voice and the challenge it lays out and the opportunity it lays out for all Australians … I want to do what I can to help the process of debate and discussion and to clear up the misunderstandings, the confusion and the misinformation because I think this is such an important moment in our history."
Trent Dalton and Pip Williams among 2024 winners
The 2024 ABIAs, presented at a ceremony in Melbourne on May 9, recognised the achievements of authors, illustrators, editors and publishers across 22 categories.
Trent Dalton — who swept the 2019 ABIAs with his debut novel Boy Swallows Universe — won the Literary Fiction Book of the Year for his third novel, Lola in the Mirror (4th Estate, HarperCollins Publishers).
The novel — which tells the story of a mother and daughter on the run from a violent past — tackles the issue of homelessness, which Dalton says is at crisis levels in Brisbane as the city prepares for the 2030 Olympic Games.
"I can't see a more urgent problem than a mum in a car doing Mathletics with her 10-year-old daughter because they can't go home," he told ABC RN's The Book Show.
The Bookbinder of Jericho (Affirm Press) — Adelaide author Pip Williams's follow-up to her bestselling 2020 debut, The Dictionary of Lost Words — took out the General Fiction Book of the Year and Marketing Strategy of the Year.
Set during World War I, Williams's novel centres on Peggy and Maude, two young sisters from a working-class background who work in the bindery of Oxford University Press.
"There's no shortage of World War I books or World War II books … but what I found is that most of those books either portray the experience of men in the trenches or women waiting for someone to come home, or they're about espionage," Williams told The Book Show.
Anna Funder, a previous Miles Franklin Literary Award winner, won the Biography Book of the Year for Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life (Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House Australia).
Funder wrote Wifedom after discovering a series of letters written by George Orwell's wife, Eileen, that revealed a side of Orwell not seen in the six official biographies devoted to the writer.
She considered using the letters as material in a fictionalisation of Eileen's story, but settled instead on an unorthodox mix of memoir, fiction and biography.
"A novel wouldn't show the sly ways in which history, in the form of these biographies, has hidden [Eileen]," she told The Book Show.
Sydney author Madeleine Gray took out the Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year for her debut, Green Dot (Allen & Unwin), a "sad girl novel" relating the emotional fallout of a 20-something's romantic relationship with her much older workmate .
Welcome to Sex by Melissa Kang and Yumi Stynes and illustrated by Jenny Latham (Hardie Grant Children's Publishing) — which BIG W controversially removed from sale from its physical stores after critics allegedly abused staff over the book's content — took out Book of the Year for Older Children.
Edenglassie (University of Queensland Press) by Melissa Lucashenko won Small Publishers' Adult Book of the Year, while Rebecca Yarros's viral #BookTok hit and New York Times bestseller Fourth Wing (Piatkus, Hachette Australia) was named International Book of the Year.
Magabala Books, an Indigenous publishing house based in Broome in Western Australia, won Small Publisher of the Year, while Publisher of the Year went to Penguin Random House Australia.
Australian Book Industry Award Winners 2024
ABIA Book of the Year
The Voice to Parliament Handbook, Thomas Mayo and Kerry O'Brien (Hardie Grant Publishing)
Audio Book of the Year
The Teacher's Pet, written and narrated by Hedley Thomas (Macmillan Australia Audio, Pan Macmillan Australia)
Biography Book of the Year
Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life, Anna Funder (Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House Australia)
Book of the Year for Older Children (ages 13+)
Welcome to Sex, written by Melissa Kang and Yumi Stynes, illustrated by Jenny Latham (HGCP Non- Fiction, Hardie Grant Children's Publishing)
Book of the Year for Younger Children (ages 7–12)
It's the Sound of the Thing, Maxine Beneba Clarke (HGCP Older Readers, Hardie Grant Children's Publishing)
Children's Picture Book of the Year (ages 0–6)
A Life Song, written by Jane Godwin, illustrated Anna Walker (Puffin, Penguin Random House Australia)
General Fiction Book of the Year
The Bookbinder of Jericho, Pip Williams (Affirm Press)
General Non-Fiction Book of the Year
The Voice to Parliament Handbook, Thomas Mayo and Kerry O'Brien (Hardie Grant Explore, Hardie Grant Publishing)
Illustrated Book of the Year
Australian Abstract, Amber Creswell Bell (Thames & Hudson Australia, Thames & Hudson)
International Book of the Year
Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros (Piatkus, Hachette Australia)
Literary Fiction Book of the Year
Lola in the Mirror, Trent Dalton (4th Estate, HarperCollins Publishers)
Small Publishers' Adult Book of the Year
Edenglassie, Melissa Lucashenko (University of Queensland Press)
Small Publishers' Children's Book of the Year
Artichoke to Zucchini: an alphabet of delicious things from around the world, Alice Oehr (Scribble, Scribe Publications)
Social Impact Book of the Year
The Voice to Parliament Handbook, Thomas Mayo and Kerry O'Brien (Hardie Grant Explore, Hardie Grant Publishing)
The Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year
Green Dot, Madeleine Gray (Allen & Unwin)
Lloyd O'Neil Hall of Fame Award
Fiona Stager, co-owner of Avid Reader and Where the Wild Things Are
Pixie O'Harris Award
Jane Godwin
Bookshop of the Year
Fullers Bookshop (TAS)
Commissioning Editor of the Year
Catherine Milne (HarperCollins Publishers)
Marketing Strategy of the Year
The Bookbinder of Jericho (Affirm Press)
Small Publisher of the Year
Magabala Books
Publisher of the Year
Penguin Random House Australia