Michael Gordon

Layne Beachley is the story of a skinny little girl who overcame a tide of obstacles, ranging from chronic fatigue and depression to debilitating injury and family tragedy, to become an icon in the male-dominated world of competitive surfing. As the winner of a record seven women's world championships, Layne also blazed trails in the mountainous waves of Hawaii's outer...

In April this year, Michael Gordon was the first journalist to gain unrestricted access to the refugee detention centre on Nauru. There, he interviewed more than half of the 54 asylum seekers then on the island. His articles, based on these interviews, for The Age and SMH drew an enormous response from readers. Freeing Ali expands beyond that article to...