This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1996.
Events
*
Christopher Koch won the
Miles Franklin Award for ''
Highways to a War''
*
David Malouf
David George Joseph Malouf (; born 20 March 1934) is an Australian poet, novelist, short story writer, playwright and Libretto, librettist. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2008, Malouf has lectured at both the University ...
won the
International Dublin Literary Award for ''
Remembering Babylon''
* The
Ned Kelly Awards, honouring excellence in Australian crime writing, are presented for the first time
Major publications
Novels
*
Thea Astley — ''
The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow''
*
James Cowan — ''
A Mapmaker's Dream''
*
Robert Dessaix — ''Night Letters: A Journey Through Switzerland and Italy Edited and Annotated by Igor Miazmov''
*
Garry Disher — ''The Sunken Road''
*
Robert Drewe — ''
The Drowner''
*
David Foster — ''
The Glade Within the Grove''
*
Clive James
Clive James (born Vivian Leopold James; 7 October 1939 – 24 November 2019) was an Australian critic, journalist, broadcaster, writer and lyricist who lived and worked in the United Kingdom from 1962 until his death in 2019.[David Malouf
David George Joseph Malouf (; born 20 March 1934) is an Australian poet, novelist, short story writer, playwright and Libretto, librettist. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2008, Malouf has lectured at both the University ...]
— ''
The Conversations at Curlow Creek''
*
John A. Scott — ''
Before I Wake''
*
Janette Turner Hospital — ''
Oyster''
*
Morris West — ''
Vanishing Point''
*
Sue Woolfe — ''
Leaning Towards Infinity''
Short story anthologies
*
Kerryn Goldsworthy — ''Australian Love Stories'' (edited)
Science fiction and fantasy
*
Sara Douglass
**''
Enchanter''
**''
StarMan''
*
Matthew Reilly — ''Contest''
*
Jane Routley — ''Mage Heart''
* Dirk Strasser — ''Equinox''
*
Lucy Sussex — ''The Scarlet Rider''
*
Sean Williams — ''
Metal Fatigue''
Crime
*
Jon Cleary – ''
Endpeace''
*
Peter Doyle – ''
Get Rich Quick''
*
Shane Maloney – ''
The Brush-Off''
*
Peter Temple – ''
Bad Debts''
Children's and young adult fiction
*
Margaret Clark — ''
Fat Chance''
*
Sonya Hartnett — ''Black Foxes''
*
Kerry Greenwood
Kerry Isabelle Greenwood (17 June 1954 – 26 March 2025) was an Australian author and lawyer. She wrote many plays and books, most notably a string of historical detective novels centred on the character of Phryne Fisher, which was adapted a ...
— ''
The Broken Wheel''
*
John Marsden — ''
Checkers
Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), is a group of Abstract strategy game, strategy board games for two players which involve forward movements of uniform game ...
''
*
James Moloney — ''
A Bridge to Wiseman's Cove''
Poetry
*
Eric Beach — ''Weeping for Lost Babylon''
*
Lisa Bellear — ''Dreaming in Urban Areas''
*
Judith Beveridge — ''Accidental Grace''
*
John Kinsella — ''The Undertow: New and Selected Poems''
*
Anthony Lawrence — ''The Viewfinder''
*
Les Murray — ''
Subhuman Redneck Poems''
*
Dorothy Porter — ''Crete''
*
Morgan Yasbincek — ''Night Reversing''
Drama
*
Nick Enright — ''
Blackrock''
*
Jenny Kemp — ''
The Black Sequin Dress''
*
Debra Oswald — ''Gary's House''
*
David Williamson — ''
Heretic''
Non-fiction
*
Bronwyn Donaghy — ''Anna's Story''
*
Doris Pilkington Garimara — ''
Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence''
*
Helen Garner — ''
True Stories: Selected Non-Fiction''
Awards and honours
*
Mavis Thorpe Clark "for service to the arts as the author of children's literature and as an active member of the writer's organisations in Australia"
*
Susanna de Vries "for service to art as an author and lecturer in Australian and European art history and history"
*
Christobel Mattingley "for service to literature, particularly children's literature, and for community service through her commitment to social and cultural issues"
Lifetime achievement
Literary
Fiction
International
National
Crime and Mystery
National
Poetry
Children and Young Adult
Non-fiction
Deaths
A list, ordered by date of death (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated,
ordered alphabetically by
surname
In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person, although several give ...
) of deaths in 1996 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of birth.
* 12 February —
Betty Roland, writer of plays, screenplays, novels, children's books and comics (born
1903)
* 26 March —
Godfrey Blunden, journalist and author (died in Paris)(born
1906)
* 23 April —
P. L. Travers, children's writer, best known for the
Mary Poppins (book series) (born
1899)
* 28 April —
Mena Calthorpe, writer (born
1905)
* 27 October —
Charlotte Jay, mystery writer and novelist who also wrote under her married name, Geraldine Halls (born
1919)
* 28 November —
Hugh V. Clarke, soldier, public servant and author, specialising in military history (born
1919)
* 31 December —
John Rowland, public servant, diplomat and poet (born
1925)
See also
*
1996 in Australia
*
1996 in literature
*
1996 in poetry
*
List of years in literature
*
List of years in Australian literature
References
{{Years in Australian literature
1996 in Australia
Australian literature by year
20th-century Australian literature
1996 in literature