This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 2009.
Events
*HarperCollins takes over ABC Books – the publishing arm of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
/ref>
* Caro Llewellyn, resigns as director of the new Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas (now called the Wheeler Centre
The Wheeler Centre, originally Centre of Books, Writing and Ideas, is a literary and publishing centre founded as part of Melbourne's bid to be a Unesco Creative City of Literature, which designation it earned in 2008. It is named after its pa ...
) in Melbourne before taking up the role.[Chapter two in writing centre's quest for leader]
/ref>
*The Australia-Asia Literary Award, based in Western Australia, is suspended.
Major publications
Literary fiction
* Steven Amsterdam – '' Things We Didn't See Coming''
* Peter Carey – '' Parrot and Olivier in America''
* Steven Carroll – ''The Lost Life''
* Brian Castro – '' The Bath Fugues''
* Nick Cave
Nicholas Edward Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian musician, writer, and actor who fronts the rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Known for his baritone voice, Cave's music is characterised by emotional intensity, a wide variety ...
– ''The Death of Bunny Munro''
* Tracy Crisp – ''Black Dust Dancing''
* Deborah Forster – ''The Book of Emmett''
* Andrea Goldsmith – ''Reunion''
* Marion Halligan
Marion Mildred Halligan Order of Australia, AM (16 April 1940 – 19 February 2024) was an Australian writer and novelist. She authored twenty-three books, including fiction, short-fiction, and non-fiction. Her novel ''Lovers' Knots'' (1992) won ...
– ''Valley of Grace''
* Sonya Hartnett
Sonya Louise Hartnett (born 23 March 1968) is an Australian author of fiction for adults, young adults, and children. She has been called "the finest Australian writer of her generation". For her career contribution to "children's and young adu ...
– ''Butterfly
Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...
''
* Eva Hornung – '' Dog Boy''
* Katherine Johnson – ''Pescador's Wake''
* Tom Keneally
Thomas Michael Keneally, AO (born 7 October 1935) is an Australian novelist, playwright, essayist, and actor. He is best known for his historical fiction novel '' Schindler's Ark'', the story of Oskar Schindler's rescue of Jews during the Hol ...
– '' The People's Train''
* Kate Legge – ''The Marriage Club''
* 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 ...
– ''Ransom
Ransom refers to the practice of holding a prisoner or item to extort money or property to secure their release. It also refers to the sum of money paid by the other party to secure a captive's freedom.
When ransom means "payment", the word ...
''
* Alex Miller – '' Lovesong''
* Jennifer Mills – ''The Diamond Anchor''
* Kristina Olsson – '' The China Garden''
* Sonia Orchard – ''The Virtuoso''
* Susan Varga – ''Headlong''
Children's and Young Adult fiction
* Allan Baille – ''Krakatoa Lighthouse''
* Alyssa Brugman
Alyssa Brugman (born May 1974) is an Australian author of fiction for young adults. She was born in Rathmines, a suburb of Lake Macquarie, Australia and attended five public schools before completing a Marketing Degree at the University of Ne ...
– ''Girl Next Door''
* Judith Clarke – ''The Winds of Heaven''
* Mem Fox
Merrion Frances "Mem" Fox AM (; born 5 March 1946) is an Australian writer of children's books and an educationalist specialising in literacy. Fox has been semi-retired since 1996, but she still writes and gives seminars. She lives in Adelaide ...
** '' Hello, Baby!''
** '' The Goblin and the Empty Chair''
* Odo Hirsch – '' Darius Bell and the Glitter Pool''
* Paul Jennings – ''The Nest''
* Justine Larbalestier – '' How to Ditch Your Fairy''
* Sophie Masson
Sophie Masson is a French-Australian fantasy and children's author.
Early life and education
Sophie Masson was born in Indonesia of French parents who are of mixed ancestry (French, Basque, Spanish and Portuguese). Masson, the third in a f ...
– ''The Madman of Venice''
* David Metzenthen – ''Jarvis 24''
* Tohby Riddle – ''The Lucky Ones''
* Lili Wilkinson – ''Pink
Pink is a pale tint of red, the color of the Dianthus plumarius, pink flower. It was first used as a color name in the late 17th century. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is the color most often associated with charm, p ...
''
* Sean Williams – ''The Scarecrow''
Crime and Mystery
* Robert G. Barrett – ''High Noon in Nimbin''
* Sydney Bauer – ''Move to Strike''
* Marshall Browne – ''The Iron Heart''
* Peter Corris
Peter Robert Corris (8 May 1942 – 30 August 2018) was an Australian academic, historian, journalist and a novelist of historical and crime fiction. As crime fiction writer, he was described as "the Godfather of contemporary Australian crime-w ...
– '' Deep Water''
* Garry Disher – '' Blood Moon''
* Kathryn Fox – ''Blood Born''
* Leah Giarratano – ''Black Ice''
* Bronwyn Parry – ''Dark Country''
Romance
* Michelle Douglas – ''The Aristocrat and The Single Mom''
* Nicola Marsh – ''Two Weeks in the Magnate's Bed''
* Katherine Scholes – ''The Hunter's Wife''
* Maxine Sullivan – ''Valente's Baby''
Science Fiction and Fantasy
* Trudi Canavan – '' The Magician's Apprentice''
* Greg Egan
Greg Egan (born 20 August 1961) is an Australian science fiction writer and mathematician, best known for his works of hard science fiction. Egan has won multiple awards including the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, the Hugo Award, and the Lo ...
** '' Crystal Nights and Other Stories''
** ''Oceanic
Oceanic may refer to:
*Of or relating to the ocean
*Of or relating to Oceania
**Oceanic climate
**Oceanic languages
**Oceanic person or people, also called "Pacific Islander(s)"
Places
* Oceanic, British Columbia, a settlement on Smith Island, ...
''
* Kim Falconer – ''The Spell of Rosette''
* Pamela Freeman – ''Full Circle''
* Christopher Green – " Father's Kill"
* Traci Harding – ''Being of the Field''
* Deborah Kalin – ''Shadow Queen''
* Glenda Larke – ''The Last Stormlord''
* Juliet Marillier – ''Heart's Blood''
* Ian McHugh – " Once a Month, On a Sunday"
* K. J. Taylor – ''The Dark Griffin''
* Sean Williams – ''The Grand Conjunction''
Drama
* Angela Betzien – ''The Dark Room''
* Matt Cameron
Matthew David Cameron (born November 28, 1962) is an American musician who is the drummer for the rock band Pearl Jam. He first gained fame as the drummer for Seattle-based rock band Soundgarden, which he joined in 1986, appearing on each of the ...
& Tim Finn
Brian Timothy Finn (born 25 June 1952) is a New Zealand singer, songwriter, musician, and composer. He is best known as a founding member of Split Enz. Finn founded the band in 1972 with Phil Judd and served as lead singer and principal songw ...
– ''Poor Boy''
* Joanna Murray-Smith – ''Rockabye''
* Richard Tulloch – ''The Book of Everything''
* David Williamson
David Keith Williamson (born 1942) is an Australian playwright, who has also written screenplays and teleplays. He became known in the early 1970s with his political comic drama '' Don's Party'', and other well-known plays include '' The Clu ...
– ''Let the Sunshine''
Poetry
* Emily Ballou – ''The Darwin Poems''
* Judith Beveridge – ''Storm and Honey''
* Emma Jones – ''The Striped World''
* Jennifer Maiden – ''Pirate Rain''
* Geoff Page – '' 60 Classic Australian Poems''
* Dorothy Porter – ''The Bee Hut''
* Peter Porter – ''Better Than God''
Biographies
* Roger Averill – ''Boy He Cry: An Island Odyssey''
* Stephen Cummings
Stephen Donald Cummings (born 13 September 1954) is an Australian rock singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer of Melbourne-based rock band the Sports from 1976 to 1981, followed by a solo career which has met with critical acclaim but h ...
– ''Will It Be Funny Tomorrow, Billy?: Misadventures in Music''
* Jacqueline Kent – ''The Making of Julia Gillard''
* Harry M. Miller with Peter Holder – ''Harry M Miller: Confessions of a Not-So-Secret Agent''
* Don Walker – ''Shots''
* Jonathon Welch – ''Choir Man''
* Shirley Walker – ''The Ghost at the Wedding''
* George Whaley – ''Leo 'Rumpole' McKern: An Accidental Actor''
* Kristin Williamson – ''David Williamson: Behind the Scenes''
Awards and honours
Lifetime achievement
Literary
Fiction
International
National
Children and Young Adult
National
Crime and Mystery
National
Science Fiction and Fantasy
International
National
Poetry
Drama
Non-Fiction
Deaths
* 14 January – Val Vallis, poet (born 1916
Events
Below, the events of the First World War have the "WWI" prefix.
January
* January 1 – The British Empire, British Royal Army Medical Corps carries out the first successful blood transfusion, using blood that has been stored ...
)
* 3 June – Geoffrey C. Bingham, theological and short story writer (born 1919
Events
January
* January 1
** The Czechoslovak Legions occupy much of the self-proclaimed "free city" of Pressburg (later Bratislava), enforcing its incorporation into the new republic of Czechoslovakia.
** HMY ''Iolaire'' sinks off th ...
)
* 3 July – Frank Devine, journalist (born 1931
Events
January
* January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics.
* January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa.
* January 22 – Sir I ...
)
* 6 September – Catherine Gaskin, author (born 1929
This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...
in Ireland)
* 8 September – Rica Erickson, botanical and historical writer (born 1908
This is the longest year in either the Julian or Gregorian calendars, having a duration of 31622401.38 seconds of Terrestrial Time (or ephemeris time), measured according to the definition of mean solar time.
Events
January
* January ...
)
* 24 November – John West, poet (born 1951
Events
January
* January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950).
* January 9 – The Government of the Uni ...
)
See also
* 2009 in Australia
The following lists events that happened during 2009 in Australia.
Incumbents
*Monarch – Elizabeth II
*Governor-General – Quentin Bryce
*Prime Minister – Kevin Rudd
**Deputy Prime Minister – Julia Gillard
** Opposition Leader – M ...
* 2009 in literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2009.
Events
*April 21 – UNESCO launches the World Digital Library.
*May 1 – Carol Ann Duffy is appointed Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, the first woma ...
* 2009 in poetry
* List of years in literature
This article gives a chronological list of years in literature, with notable publications listed with their respective years and a small selection of notable events. The time covered in individual years covers Renaissance, Baroque and Modern liter ...
* List of Australian literary awards
References
Note: all references relating to awards can, or should be, found on the relevant award's page.
{{Years in Australian literature
Literature
Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...
Australian literature by year
21st-century Australian literature
2009 in literature