The State Library of NSW has announced the following works have been shortlisted for the $30,000 Ashurst Business Literature Prize 2017:
- Losing Streak: How Tasmania was gamed by the gambling industry by James Boyce (Black Inc.)
- Stop Fixing Women: Why building fairer workplaces is everybody’s business by Catherine Fox (NewSouth)
- Jumping Ship: From the world of corporate Australia to the heart of social investment by Michael Traill (Hardie Grant)
Fox is renowned for her writing on women and the workforce. She was the author of ‘Corporate Woman’, a column for the Australian Financial Review and has written three previous books, including Seven Myths about Women and Work (NewSouth), which was shortlisted for the 2013 Ashurst Business Literature Prize.
Fox also helped pioneer the annual Westpac/Financial Review 100 Women of Influence Awards and is on several boards, including the Australian Defence Force Gender Equality Advisory Board.
The finalists were selected by an independent judging panel comprised of Richard Fisher AM, General Counsel and Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Sydney; leading business journalist, editor and author, Narelle Hooper; and Margie Seale, a Non‐Executive Director of Telstra Corporation, Bank of Queensland and Ramsay Health Care, and former CEO of Random House Australia and New Zealand.
Richard Fisher, chair of the judging panel, commended the shortlist on its diversity: “The shortlisted books this year cover a diverse range of issues including the interplay between various Tasmanian Governments and the gambling industry (a topical book in the context of the recent election in that State), making the workplace fit for women rather than women fit for the workplace and the application of good business practices to the not‐for‐profit sector.”
Established by law firm Ashurst (formerly Blake Dawson) and the State Library of NSW in 2004, the award aims to encourage Australian authors to produce the highest possible standards of literary commentary on business and financial affairs
The winner will be announced at a special presentation dinner on 31 May 2018.