The State Library of New South Wales (SLNSW) has announced Lamisse Hamouda’s 'powerfully told' and 'accomplished' debut memoir, The Shape of Dust, as the winner of this year’s $25,000 National Biography Award. Inner Song by Jillian Graham was also announced as the winner of the 2024 Michael Crouch Award for a debut work.

The Shape of Dust tells the story of Lamisse’s father, Australian–Egyptian citizen Hazem Hamouda, who was wrongfully detained in an Egyptian gaol, and of her mission to free him. 

The judges praised Lamisse Hamouda for her sensitive and introspective approach, her careful consideration of her father’s words, her keen observations on Egypt, Australia, politics, identity and the media, and her skilful use of lightness amidst bleak moments.

Senior Judge Dr Melinda Harvey said: 'The Shape of Dust is urgent, experimental, self-reflexive. It bristles with a sense of injustice and trauma and is determined not to reinscribe these indignities in telling the tale . . . This work will resonate with many Australian readers, including those whose identities are linked to places beyond Australia’s borders.'

The Shape of Dust by Lamisse Hamouda

In 2018, on his way to a family holiday in Cairo, Australian-Egyptian citizen Hazem Hamouda disappears without warning, going missing somewhere between landing and customs.

His eldest daughter, Lamisse, has recently moved to Egypt armed with a scholarship to the American University of Cairo, and overnight her world is turned upside down. With little Arabic and even less legal knowledge, she finds out her father has been arbitrarily arrested. Going up against the notorious Egyptian prison system, Lamisse discovers that the Australian embassy provides shockingly little support to dual citizens arrested abroad.

Shouldering the responsibility of her father’s welfare, Lamisse learns to navigate both deeply flawed systems, and freeing Hazem involves a reckoning with the two countries she’s called home – coming to terms with the prejudice and racism of the country she grew up in and the corruption in the country she was hoping to reconnect with.

Told with exquisite intimacy by both father and daughter, The Shape of Dust is an Australian story unlike any other, and the striking debut of a writer of incredible nuance, insight and talent.

Also announced was the $5000 Michael Crouch Award for a debut work.

This was presented to Jillian Graham for her debut biography of pioneering modernist composer Margaret Sutherland, Inner Song.

Inner Song: A Biography of Margaret Sutherland by Jillian Graham

Did Margaret Sutherland achieve more for Australian music than any other composer?

Margaret Sutherland was one of the most innovative and influential Australian composers. In the first half of the twentieth century, her desire to be both serious composer and mother was atypical, and she faced significant challenges – public and private – in blending these roles.

Against the backdrop of an unhappy and unsupportive marriage and a society not yet ready to accept her creative ambitions and strong views on Australia's musical development, she remained admirably steadfast in pursuing her goals. Sutherland created over two hundred compositions, ceaselessly campaigned on behalf of Australian music and musicians, and led the initial push to construct what is now Arts Centre Melbourne. In her attempts to redefine beauty in music she used idiosyncratic musical language, being at the mercy of 'sound pictures' and 'floating ideas'.

This book tells her remarkable story, laying bare something of Sutherland's inspiring 'inner song'.

Highly commended was Graft by Maggie Mackellar.

Explore the 2024 shortlist here and learn more about the award here.