Cassandra Pybus

{{short description|Australian historian and writer (born 1947)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2016}}

{{Use Australian English|date=November 2016}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Cassandra Pybus

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| birth_name = Cassandra Jean Pybus

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1947|9|29}}

| birth_place = Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

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| occupation = {{flatlist|

• Historian
• biographer
• academic

}}

| language = English

| nationality = Australian

| education = North Sydney Girls High School

| alma_mater = University of Sydney

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| awards = Colin Roderick Award (1993)

National Biography Award (2021)

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| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=AUS|FAHA|size=100}}

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Cassandra Jean Pybus {{post-nominals|country=AUS|FAHA}} (born 29 September 1947) is an Australian historian and writer. She is a former professorial fellow in history at the University of Sydney, and has published extensively on Australian and American history.{{cite web|title=Professor Cassandra Pybus|url=http://sydney.edu.au/arts/history/staff/profiles/cpybus.shtml|website=Department of History|publisher=University of Sydney|accessdate=25 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160509004212/http://sydney.edu.au/arts/history/staff/profiles/cpybus.shtml|archive-date=9 May 2016|url-status=dead}}

Pybus was born in Hobart, Tasmania and educated at North Sydney Girls High School and the University of Sydney.{{citation|title=Who's Who in Australia|publisher=ConnectWeb}} Her mother, Betty Pybus, was a pioneer of women's health in Sydney and Tasmania.{{cite web|title=Betty Jean Vyvyan Pybus OAM|url=http://www.dpac.tas.gov.au/divisions/csr/programs-and-services/tasmanian_honour_roll_of_women/inductees/2006/betty_jean_vyvyan_pybus_oam|website=Honour Roll of Women|publisher=Government of Tasmania|accessdate=25 April 2016}}

From 1989 to 1994, Pybus was editor of the literary magazine Island. She won the Colin Roderick Award in 1993 for Gross Moral Turpitude, a re-examination of the case of Sydney Sparkes Orr, a Northern Irish academic who became embroiled in a scandal involving a relationship with a student whilst working at the University of Tasmania.{{cite web|title=Colin Roderick Award|url=https://www.jcu.edu.au/foundation-for-australian-literary-studies/colin-roderick-award/previous-winners2|publisher=James Cook University|accessdate=25 April 2016}} In 2000, she won an Adelaide Festival Award for Literature for The Devil and James McAuley, a biography of the poet James McAuley.{{cite web|title=Tasmania: The Tipping Point?|url=http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=10999|publisher=University of Sydney|accessdate=25 April 2016}}

Pybus was awarded the Centenary Medal in 2001 for outstanding contribution to Tasmanian and Australian literature and education.{{cite web|title=PYBUS, Cassandra|url=https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1122514|website=It's an Honour|publisher=Australian Government|accessdate=25 April 2016}}

In 2020 she was shortlisted for the Nonfiction Book Award at the Queensland Literary Awards for Truganini: Journey Through the Apocalypse{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2020-08-05|title=Queensland Literary Awards 2020 shortlists announced|url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2020/08/05/154726/queensland-literary-awards-2020-shortlists-announced/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919104133/https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2020/08/05/154726/queensland-literary-awards-2020-shortlists-announced/ |archive-date=19 September 2020 |access-date=2020-08-06|website=Books+Publishing|language=en-AU}} and for the Nonfiction prize at the 2021 Indie Book Awards{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2021-01-20|title=Indie Book Awards 2021 shortlists announced|url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2021/01/20/161529/indie-book-awards-2021-shortlists-announced/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210120005004/https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2021/01/20/161529/indie-book-awards-2021-shortlists-announced/ |archive-date=20 January 2021 |access-date=2021-01-20|website=Books+Publishing|language=en-AU}} as well as the 2021 Biography book of the year at the Australian Book Industry Awards with Truganini.{{Cite web|last=|date=2021-04-12|title=ABIA 2021 shortlists announced|url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2021/04/12/184964/abia-2021-shortlists-announced/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-04-12|website=Books+Publishing|language=en-AU|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210412051001/https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2021/04/12/184964/abia-2021-shortlists-announced/ |archive-date=12 April 2021 }} In August 2021 she won the National Biography Award with Truganini,{{Cite web|date=2021-08-05|title=National Biography Award winner's announced on ABC Sydney|url=https://www.abc.net.au/radio/sydney/national-biography-award/13483978|access-date=2021-08-26|website=ABC Radio|language=en}} while in November 2021 she was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.{{Cite web |title=Fellow Profile: Cassandra Pybus |url=https://humanities.org.au/fellows/fellow-profile/?fellow_id=1127 |url-status= |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=2024-08-04 |website=Australian Academy of the Humanities |language=en-AU}}

Her 2024 book, A Very Secret Trade, was shortlisted for the 2025 Victorian Premier's Prize for Nonfiction.{{Cite web |date=2025-01-29 |title=Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards 2025 shortlists announced |url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2025/01/29/265330/victorian-premiers-literary-awards-2025-shortlist-announced/ |access-date=2025-01-29 |publisher=Books+Publishing}}