Julia Baird’s book of the year shines brightly in a class of its own

Writer and journalist Julia Baird has taken home Book of the Year at the 2021 ABI Awards with her best-selling work, Phosphorescence.

Julia Baird’s prize-winning work resists categorisation.

Earlier this year, distinguished French publishing house Gallimard issued a stern warning to all would-be writers thinking of ­submitting their latest magnum opus: stop sending us your lockdown trash, we’ve seen enough.

Home to Proust, Camus and Sartre, Gallimard knows how to sort the wheat from the chaff.

In Australia, plague and lockdown seem to have played to our advantage, at least according to the judges of the Australian Book ­Industry Awards, who have ­recognised a host of debut perform­ances across several major categories.

On Wednesday night, amid a star-studded line-up of former Booker Prize winners and Miles Franklin recipients, the toast of the Australian literati gathered to celebrate a surreal year of virtual launches and 2-D festivals, with ABIA’s most coveted award going to writer and journalist Julia Baird for her best-selling book, ­Phosphorescence.

After writing two other non­fiction hits, including Victoria: The Queen and Media Tarts, Baird’s prize-winning work has been praised by critics as a special book that resists categorisation.

“The closest we could come to describing Phosphorescence is a meditation,” the panel concluded, saying it offered “a profound, moving, eclectic and inspiring meditation on those things and people that make us glow in dark times”.

Julia Baird’s award-winning book Phosphorescence.

Baird’s third book combines snapshots of memoir, including reflections on her struggle with abdominal cancer, as well as thoughts on “the things that give us comfort and make us strong”.

Discussing the book early last year, Baird said she was determined not to write another misery ­memoir.

“Other people have done that, but my impulse was to write about the crossbeams of resilience,” she said.

“When you’re faced with your own mortality, you get this sudden urgency to just sit down and do it … and it was a book I just had to write.”

Meanwhile, women writers dominated the night’s fiction categories, with Pip Williams taking home the award for best fiction for her novel, The Dictionary of Lost Words, and Jessica Tu winning the literary fiction book of the year for her debut work, A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing.

The night also showcased the ongoing strength of Indigenous publishing, with major awards going to Adam Briggs, Kate Moon and Rachael Sarra for their picture book Our Home, Our Heartbeat and singer songwriter Archie Roach winning best narration for the audiobook Tell Me Why.

Centenarian Eddie Jaku took home biography of the year for his memoir, The Happiest Man on Earth.

Presenting the award virtually, two-time Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett said “out of the shadow of a global pandemic, Julia Baird’s Phosphorescence shone bright and full of hope, proving that books sustain us in times of darkness”.

Blanchett also paid tribute to the “the rich contribution that Australian literature has made within the realm of film and television”, adding that Australia still continues to punch above its weight across all the creative arts.

On accepting her award, days after the death of her mother, Judy, Baird said: “It takes a lot of love and a lot of support to be able to sit and write words that mean a lot to you and this one just came straight from the heart.”