The Patrick White Award is an annual literary prize established by Patrick White who used his Nobel Prize in Literature award to establish a trust for this prize.
The award is given to a writer who has been highly creative over a long period but has not necessarily received adequate recognition. Such writers are automatically eligible without the necessity for submissions.
PatrickWhite (May 28, 1912 – September 30, 1990) was an Australian author who is widely regarded as one of the greatest English-language novelists of the 20th century.
White’s biographer, David Marr, wrote that they would walk arm in arm to London shows, stand around stage doors to catch a glimpse of their favourite stars and give practical demonstrations of chorus girls’ high kicks, with appropriate noises.
White refused to see it when it was first performed at the Adelaide Festival, because Queen Elizabeth II had been invited, instead choosing to see it in Sydney.
PatrickWhite was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1973, the Swedish Academy's commendation referred to the author's epic and psychological narrative art as having introduced a new continent into literature.
White's "Australianness" and commitment to the continent are nevertheless generally recognized in the sense that his return brought true colours back to his palette and, in The Aunt's Story (1947), introduced a new style into his canon, initiating novels of depth and dedication.
The reason why PatrickWhite has frequently been accused of elitism seems to be his fierce disdain of the commonplace, his horror of the average, and his contempt for the materialist attitudes of mundane suburbia that are manifest in all his writing.
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