Nikos Papastergiadis has been awarded the 2025 Michael Crouch Award for a Debut Work at the National Biography Awards for his hybrid memoir John Berger and Me.
The announcement was made on July 31 via ABC Radio.
Described by the judges as “a unique, stunning blend of biography and memoir”, John Berger and Me stood out for its originality and form.
Awards chair Sylvia Martin praised its “clever, non-linear but accessible structure”, adding: “The quality of Nikos Papastergiadis’ perceptive, lyrical, subtly humorous prose also shone among a highly competitive field.”
The book explores Papastergiadis’ friendship with renowned English cultural theorist John Berger, whose 1972 work Ways of Seeing remains influential. Their connection began in the 1990s, when Papastergiadis, then a doctoral student at Cambridge, regularly visited Berger’s home in the rural French village of Quincy.
Calling the work a “likeness”, Papastergiadis presents a rich tapestry of anecdotes, fragments, and memories. He delves into their shared passions – motorbikes, rembetika music, and hay-making – while also offering vivid depictions of Berger’s family, local villagers, and his own Greek migrant parents.
More than a personal memoir, the book meditates on broader themes of migration, belonging, and the existential challenges faced by agrarian communities in the modern world.
Papastergiadis, a graduate of the University of Melbourne and the University of Cambridge, currently researches the impact of digital technology on contemporary art and cultural institutions.
He is set to appear at the State Library of NSW on August 16 in conversation with other shortlisted authors.
Source: Giramondo Publishing
