Award-winning writer Ellen van Neerven plays football from a young age, learning early on that sport can be a painful and exclusive world. The more they play, the more they realise about sport’s troubled relationship with race, gender and sexuality – and question what it means to play sport on stolen, sovereign land, especially in the midst of multiple environmental crises.
With emotional honesty and searing insight, van Neerven shines a light on sport on this continent from a queer First Nations perspective, revealing how some athletes have long challenged mainstream views and used their roles to effect change not only in their own realm, but in society more broadly. Personal Score is a ground-breaking book that confirms, once again, van Neerven’s unrivalled talent, courage and originality.
Winner, Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2024 – Non-Fiction
Shortlisted, Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2024 – Indigenous Writing
Shortlisted, The Age Book of the Year Award – Non-fiction
Shortlisted, 2024 NSW Premier's Literary Awards - Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-fiction
Shortlisted, 2024 NSW Premier's Literary Awards - Indigenous Writers' Prize
Shortlisted, 2024 Queensland Literary Awards – The University of Queensland Non-Fiction Book Award
Shortlisted, 2024 South Australian Literary Awards – Non-fiction Award
Longlisted, 2024 ALS Gold Medal
Longlisted, the 2024 Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award
Longlisted, 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction
Australia's sporting myths - ABC Big Ideas
Ellen van Neerven's Personal Score - ABC RN Life Matters
Settling Scores - Ruth McHugh-Dillon interviews Ellen van Neerven for Sydney Review of Books
Recording of Ellen van Neerven's event at the State Library of NSW
Grattan’s Summer Series: Ellen van Neerven on Personal Score