The Sydney Swans would like to congratulate ambassador, DAP committee member and former number one ticket holder Cynthia Banham, who has been shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards.

A Certain Light, published in 2018, is Banham’s incredible story of survival, family, loss and hope. It was written 11 years after she survived the Garuda Indonesia plane crash in Yogyakarta that killed 21 people.

The book is one of five that has been shortlisted in the non-fiction category. The judges said:

A Certain Light is a deeply literary memoir which lifts the genre to a higher level. Banham's study of the complex responses to great life-shaping tragedies is revealing and inspiring. Surviving a horrific plane crash which leaves her severely and permanently disabled is, as it turns out, one of the many challenges in her life.

This shattering traumatic event and its aftermath provide the lens and focus to examine her multidimensional life and enables her to work through her complicated and difficult relationship with her mother and her God. There is catharsis in re-examining her life and history in consequence of these transformative events.

A Certain Light is a sharp, unflinching account of being human, for the plane crash removed all artifice and stripped away from her former layers of politeness. This is an unusual memoir in which the author is prepared to reveal her vulnerability, her constant and unrelenting pain, physical, emotional and even spiritual. More than a standard autobiography, this is an exposure of her inner self, as she re-examines her family through the prism of trauma and its lasting legacy.

Winners will be announced later this year.

A Certain Light is available via the SWANSHOP