Pheme Tanner

EUPHEMIA "Pheme" AWARD
for outstanding personal contribution to children's literature

The Pheme Tanner Award is a biennial award presented as part of the La Trobe University, Bendigo Children's Literature Conference. It is jointly sponsored by La Trobe University, Bendigo and the Business and Professional Women’s Association (BPWA) of Bendigo. It is presented to recognize distinguished service to Children’s Literature and the encouragement of the joys of reading in children.

The award commemorates Miss Euphemia Tanner (1914 - 1993), who was the Bendigo Library’s Children’s Librarian from 1946 to 1979 and one of the first full-time children’s librarians in Australia. Her enthusiasm for literature and wide knowledge of children's books influenced a generation of readers. Her greatest reward, she said, was to know that she had left so many children with a love of books and introduced them to the joys of reading.
She was also President and long time member of the BPWA, raising issues of the status of women in professional life. She took a firm and determined stand on many situations and projects that affected not only her own professional life, but also those of her staff, her peers and all professional women.
Miss Tanner was energetic and enthusiastic, often single-minded and forthright. She made immense contribution to the strong traditions of libraries and children's literature in Bendigo, and was responsible for generations of children in central Victoria reading widely, critically and well.

Winners of the award are:

2005: Michael Dugan, author, editor, poet

Beginning by editing the Australian School Librarian as a 21 year old in 1968, Michael has spent a lifetime actively presenting good literature to children. He has written novels and poetry for younger, teen and adult readers, and worked tirelessly in the publishing and bookselling trades. But his many non-fiction series of titles for Macmillan, running well over a hundred titles, have left a lasting legacy of respect for children as astute and knowledgable readers.

2003: No Award

2001: Helen Chamberlin, editor and publisher

Helen epitomises the best of editorship, a quiet voice standing in the shadows behind the public faces, shaping and guiding, challenging and demanding. She has forged strong published lists in Children's and Young Adult Literature, particularly with the Lothian publishing house, uncompromising in her determination that readers get the best levels of variety, quality and choice.

1999: Christobel Mattingley, author

Christobel has never been afraid of presenting the real world to the readers of her books. The humour of Tiger's Milk (1974) and The Great Ballagundi Damper Break (1975), or the emotion of Southerly Buster (1983) and Windmill at Magpie Creek (1971), portray children and the adults around them honestly and openly. Her most challenging (and probably successful) works deal with war, particularly the experience of refugees. The Asmir trilogy (1993-6), The Angel with Mouth organ (1984) and The Miracle Tree (1985) look startlingly at ordinary people coping in extraordinary circumstances.
Christobel has also researched and edited the major historical and social work Survival in our own land : 'Aboriginal' experiences in 'South Australia' since 1836 (1988)

1997: Moira Robinson, lecturer, critic and bookseller

Enthusiasm has always been Moira's hallmark, an efferevescent delight married to an absolute determination that young readers deserve the highest quality in their literature. Whether it has been in her bookshops, her academic work, her reviewing or her publishing work, she has ever been an evangelist for this cause and worked untiringly to achieve that best.

1995: Noela Young, illustrator

For over 40 years, Noela Young has illustrated children's literature in many formats. From the whimsical Muddle headed wombat series of the 60s (author Ruth Park) to the sensitivity of Grandpa (1998, author Lilith Norman), her eye for subtle mood and detail, especially in the worlds of children and animal, has enriched the reading experience of generations of children (and the adults reading with them!)

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