This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 2010.
Events
*26 January –
Peter Goldsworthy is awarded a Member (AM) in the General Division in the Australia Day Honours List.
*February – The "Australian Book Review" magazine conducted a poll of its readers and announces that ''
Cloudstreet
''Cloudstreet'' is a novel by Australian writer Tim Winton published in 1991. It chronicles the lives of two working-class families, the Pickles and the Lambs, who come to live together in a large house called Cloudstreet in Perth, Western Au ...
'' by
Tim Winton
Timothy John Winton (born 4 August 1960) is an Australian writer. He has written novels, children's books, non-fiction books, and short stories. In 1997, he was named a Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia, and has won the ...
is Australia's favourite novel.
*22 June –
Peter Temple wins the
Miles Franklin Award
The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". The award was set up according to the Will (law), will of Miles Franklin ...
for his novel ''
Truth
Truth or verity is the Property (philosophy), property of being in accord with fact or reality.Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionarytruth, 2005 In everyday language, it is typically ascribed to things that aim to represent reality or otherwise cor ...
'' becoming the first crime novel to do so.
Major publications
Literary fiction
* Jon Bauer – ''Rocks in the Belly''
*
Carmel Bird – ''Child of the Twilight''
*
Ashley Hay – ''The Body in the Clouds''
*
Anita Heiss – ''Manhattan Dreaming''
*
Toni Jordan – ''Fall Girl''
*
Amanda Lohrey – ''
Reading Madame Bovary'' (short story collection)
*
Roger McDonald – ''
When Colts Ran''
*
Fiona McGregor – ''
Indelible Ink
Electoral ink, indelible ink, electoral stain or phosphoric ink is a semi-permanent ink or dye that is applied to the finger of voters (usually the index finger) during elections in order to prevent electoral fraud such as double voting. It is us ...
''
*
Monica McInerney – ''At Home with the Templetons''
*
D.B.C. Pierre – ''Lights Out in Wonderland''
* Jessica Rudd – ''Campaign Ruby''
*
Kim Scott – ''
That Deadman Dance''
*
Chris Womersley – ''
Bereft''
Children's and Young Adult fiction
*
Alexandra Adornetto – ''Halo''
*
Mem Fox – ''
Let's Count Goats!''
*
Sonya Hartnett – ''
The Midnight Zoo''
*
Rebecca James – ''Beautiful Malice''
*
Alison Lester
Alison Jean Lester (born 17 November 1952) is an Australian author and illustrator who has published over 25 children's picture books and two young adult novels — ''The Quickstand Pony'' and ''The Snow Pony''. In 2005 Lester won the Child ...
– ''
Noni the Pony''
*
Doug MacLeod – ''The Life of a Teenage Body-Snatcher''
*
Melina Marchetta – ''The Piper's Son''
*
Garth Nix
Garth Richard Nix (born 19 July 1963) is an Australian writer who specialises in children's and young adult fantasy novels, notably the ''The Old Kingdom, Old Kingdom'', ''The Seventh Tower, Seventh Tower'' and ''The Keys to the Kingdom, Keys t ...
– ''
Lord Sunday''
*
Markus Zusak
Markus Zusak (born 23 June 1975) is an Australian-German writer. He is best known for ''The Book Thief'' and ''The Messenger (Zusak novel), The Messenger'', two novels that became international bestsellers. He won the Margaret Edwards Award in 2 ...
– ''
Bridge of Clay''
Science Fiction and Fantasy
*
Trudi Canavan – ''The Ambassador's Mission''
*
Sara Douglass – ''The Infinity Gate''
*
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 ...
– ''
Zendegi''
*
Fiona McIntosh – ''King's Wrath''
*
Sean McMullen – "
Eight Miles"
*
Juliet Marillier – ''Seer of Sevenwaters''
*
Scott Westerfeld
Scott David Westerfeld (born May 5, 1963) is an American writer of young adult fiction, best known as the author of the ''Uglies series, Uglies'' and the ''Leviathan (Westerfeld novel), Leviathan'' series.
Early life
Westerfeld was born in Dal ...
– ''Behemoth''
*
Sean Williams
** ''
The Force Unleashed II''
** ''
Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance''
Crime and Mystery
* Lenny Bartulin – ''The Black Russian''
*
John Birmingham
John Birmingham (born 7 August 1964) is a British-born Australian author, known for the 1994 memoir ''He Died with a Felafel in His Hand'', the ''Axis of Time'' trilogy, and the well-received space opera series, the ''Cruel Stars'' trilogy.
...
– ''
After America''
*
Honey Brown – ''
The Good Daughter''
*
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 ...
– ''Torn Apart''
*
Garry Disher – ''
Wyatt''
*
Kathryn Fox – ''Death Mask''
*
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 ...
– ''Dead Man's Chest: A Phryne Fisher Mystery''
*
Katherine Howell – ''Cold Justice''
*
Adrian Hyland – ''Gunshot Road''
*
Colleen McCullough – ''Naked Cruelty''
*
Geoff McGeachin – ''
The Diggers Rest Hotel''
*
Tara Moss – ''The Blood Countess''
* P. M. Newton – ''The Old School''
*
Malla Nunn – ''Let the Dead Lie''
*
Leigh Redhead – ''Thrill City''
*
Michael Robotham – ''Bleed for Me''
*
Angela Savage – ''The Half-Child''
*
David Whish-Wilson – ''Line of Sight''
Poetry
*
Christopher Kelen – ''The Whole Forest Dancing: Poems on Four Legs in the Morning''
*
Les Murray – ''Taller When Prone''
*
Dorothy Porter – ''Love Poems''
*
Peter Porter – ''The Rest on the Flight: Selected Poems''
*
Thomas Shapcott – ''Parts of Us''
*
John Tranter
John Ernest Tranter (29 April 1943 – 21 April 2023) was an Australian poet, publisher and editor. He published more than twenty books of poetry; devising, with Jan Garrett, the long running ABC radio program ''Books and Writing''; and foundin ...
– ''Starlight: 150 Poems''
*
Mark Tredinnick – ''Fire Diary''
Biography
*
Blanche d'Alpuget – ''Hawke: The Prime Minister''
* Jeff Apter – ''Together Alone: The Story of the Finn Brothers''
* Jim Davidson – ''A Three Cornered Life: The Historian W.K. Hancock''
*
Malcolm Fraser
John Malcolm Fraser (; 21 May 1930 – 20 March 2015) was an Australian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Australia from 1975 to 1983. He held office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia, and is the fourth List of ...
&
Margaret Simons – ''Malcolm Fraser: The Political Memoirs''
*
Rob Mundle – ''Bligh: Master Mariner''
* Anne Pender – ''One Man Show: The Stages of Barry Humphries''
* Mark Logue &
Peter Conradi – ''The King's Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy''
Awards and honours
Lifetime achievement
Literary
Fiction
International
National
Children and Young Adult
National
Crime and Mystery
National
Science fiction
Poetry
Drama
Non-Fiction
Deaths
* 15 March —
Patricia Wrightson, author (born
1921
Events
January
* January 2
** The Association football club Cruzeiro Esporte Clube, from Belo Horizonte, is founded as the multi-sports club Palestra Italia by Italian expatriates in First Brazilian Republic, Brazil.
** The Spanish lin ...
)
* 23 April —
Peter Porter, author (born
1929)
* 29 May —
Randolph Stow, author (died in England)(born
1935
Events
January
* January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims.
* January 12 – Amelia Earhart ...
)
* 9 July —
Jessica Anderson, author (born
1916)
* 19 July —
Jon Cleary, author (born
1917
Events
Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix.
January
* January 9 – WWI – Battle of Rafa: The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force's ...
)
* 8 September —
Donald Horne
Donald Richmond Horne (26 December 1921 – 8 September 2005) was an Australian journalist, writer, social critic, and academic who became one of Australia's best known public intellectuals, from the 1960s until his death.
Horne was a proli ...
, author (born
1921
Events
January
* January 2
** The Association football club Cruzeiro Esporte Clube, from Belo Horizonte, is founded as the multi-sports club Palestra Italia by Italian expatriates in First Brazilian Republic, Brazil.
** The Spanish lin ...
)
* 6 October —
David Rowbotham, author (born
1924)
* 14 November —
Bobbi Sykes, poet and author (born
1943
Events
Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.
January
* January 1 – WWII: The Soviet Union announces that 22 German divisions have been encircled at Stalingrad, with 175,000 killed and 137,650 captured.
* January 4 � ...
)
* 14 December —
Ruth Park, author (born
1917
Events
Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix.
January
* January 9 – WWI – Battle of Rafa: The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force's ...
)
See also
*
2010 in Australia
*
2010 in literature
*
2010 in poetry
*
List of years in Australian literature
*
List of years in literature
*
List of Australian literary awards
References
{{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
2010 in literature