The Many Worlds of R. H. Mathews included in 2012 NSW Premier's Literary Awards shortlist

Dr Martin Thomas, ARC Future Fellow at School of History, ANU has been shortlisted for The Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-fiction ($40,000), for his work The Many Worlds of R. H. Mathews: In Search of an Australian Anthropologist.

Dr Thomas is one of 72 authors and illustrators in the running for $360,000 in prize money, announced today as part of the prestigious 2012 NSW Premier's Literary Awards shortlist, the winner of which will be announced at the end of November.

The Many Worlds of R. H. Mathews: In Search of an Australian Anthropologist tells the story of surveyor and self-taught anthropologist R. H. Mathews (1841-1918) who became one of Australia's most significant early researchers of Aboriginal languages, culture and history. The son of Irish immigrants, Mathews published 171 articles on Aboriginal culture in south-east Australia at a time when most Australians thought Aboriginal people were dying out.

Earlier this year Dr Thomas won the $25,000 2012 National Biography Award, Australia's richest prize for biographical writing and memoir, for The Many Worlds of R. H. Mathews.