Henry Mayer Book Prize

Nomination Guidelines

• The nomination is open to book-length monographs by academic or non-academic authors, which may be single- or jointly-authored, however edited collections are not eligible. The author has to be a current financial member of APSA for the book to be eligible for consideration.
• A call for nominations will be circulated to members of APSA and to the major publishers operating in Australia. Any publisher may nominate one book for consideration, and a book may only be submitted once for the prize. Authors can self-nominate or be nominated by another person.
• The Prize is awarded to the best book on Australian politics (including political history) that has been published by a university or commercial publisher (in Australia or overseas) in the preceding two years (e.g. The prize awarded in 2026 will be for a book published in 2025 or 2024, year of publication being the year stated in the book). Preference will be given to a monograph that focuses on one or more of Mayer’s special interests: the media, political parties or Indigenous affairs.
• To enter, please complete the Henry Mayer Book Prize Nomination Form and email with a PDF or four electronic copies (if your copies are download codes or eBooks) of the nominated book to the APSA National Office at: info@auspsa.org.au by the announced due date. Please do not submit anything until the call for nominations is announced.

Judging Process

• The decision will be made by a judging panel chaired by a member of the APSA Executive. The panel will consist of at least three judges (including the chair), who need not be APSA current financial members, with at least one woman. Except where such a nomination might give rise to a perceived conflict of interest, the panel will also include a fourth person nominated by the Mayer Trust. Past winners will be encouraged to participate in the judging process for future awards.
• Members of judging panels should adhere to the Guidance on Identifying and Managing Conflicts of Interest. If the Chair of a judging panel has a significant conflict of interest, they must relinquish their position as Chair to one of the other panellists.
• APSA reserves the right not to award the prize in any given year.

Award Details

• The winner will be invited to attend the Association’s AGM & Prize Ceremony and receive the prize of $1000 and a certificate.
• This Prize is funded by the Henry Mayer Trust.