The Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-fiction: Judges 2007

Bruce Sims (Convenor)

Bruce Sims is now a freelance editor, having worked as a publisher for Penguin Books and Magabala Books Aboriginal Corporation for many years. He has also taught at all levels from primary to tertiary, professional and adult education.

Tony Birch

Tony Birch publishes short fiction, poetry and essays. His book Shadowboxing was released in 2006. He teaches in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne.

Mary Dalmau

Mary Dalmau entered the book trade in 1977 whilst studying Librarianship at RMIT. Currently the General Manager of Reader’s Feast Booksellers, she served three years as President of the Australian Booksellers Association and two years as Immediate Past President. Conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Australian Booksellers Association in 2006, Mary continues to work on the advisory committee for Moreland City Libraries and remains active in speaking on the book trade to business, education, and government audiences.

Joy Damousi

Professor Joy Damousi is the founding Head of the University of Melbourne’s newly formed School of Historical Studies. The author of several books, on war, mourning, memory and trauma, she won the prestigious 2006 Ernest Scott Prize for her latest publication, Freud in the Antipodes: A Cultural History of Psychoanalysis in Australia.

Peter Mares

Peter Mares presents The National Interest on ABC Radio National. He has been a journalist and broadcaster with the ABC since 1987, having previously presented the regional current affairs program Asia Pacific and worked as a foreign correspondent based in Hanoi. Peter is an adjunct research fellow at the Institute of Social Research at Swinburne University of Technology, where he pursues an interest in migration, borders and human movement. His book Borderline, about Australia’s refugee policies, won prizes at the 2001 Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, the 2002 NSW Premier's Literary Awards and the 2001 Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Human Rights Awards.