Australian literature is the written or literary work produced in the area or by the people of the

Commonwealth of Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It has a total area of , making it the sixth-largest country in ...

and its preceding colonies. During its early

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

history, Australia was a collection of British colonies; as such, its recognised literary tradition begins with and is linked to the broader tradition of

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

. However, the narrative art of Australian writers has, since 1788, introduced the character of a new continent into literature—exploring such themes as

Aboriginality Aboriginal Australian identity, sometimes known as Aboriginality, is the perception of oneself as Aboriginal Australian, or the recognition by others of that identity. Aboriginal Australians are one of two Indigenous Australian groups of peopl ...

, ''

mateship Mateship is an Australian cultural idiom that embodies equality, loyalty and friendship. Russel Ward, in ''The Australian Legend'' (1958), once saw the concept as central to the Australian people. ''Mateship'' derives from '' mate'', meaning ''f ...

'',

egalitarianism Egalitarianism (; also equalitarianism) is a school of thought within political philosophy that builds on the concept of social equality, prioritizing it for all people. Egalitarian doctrines are generally characterized by the idea that all hum ...

democracy Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

, national identity, migration, Australia's unique location and geography, the complexities of urban living, and " the beauty and the terror" of life in the

Australian bush "The bush" is a term mostly used in the English vernacular of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, where it is largely synonymous with hinterlands or backwoods. The fauna and flora contained within the bush is typically native to the regi ...

Overview

Australian writers who have obtained international renown include the Nobel-winning author

Patrick White Patrick Victor Martindale White (28 May 1912 – 30 September 1990) was an Australian novelist and playwright who explored themes of religious experience, personal identity and the conflict between visionary individuals and a materialistic, co ...

, as well as authors

Christina Stead Christina Stead (17 July 190231 March 1983) was an Australian novelist and short-story writer acclaimed for her satirical wit and penetrating psychological characterisations. Christina Stead was a committed Marxist, although she was never a me ...

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 ...

, Peter Carey,

Thomas Keneally Thomas Michael Keneally, Officer of the Order of Australia, 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' ...

Colleen McCullough Colleen Margaretta McCullough (; married name Robinson, previously Ion-Robinson; 1 June 193729 January 2015) was an Australian author known for her novels, her most well-known being '' The Thorn Birds'' and '' The Ladies of Missalonghi''. Lif ...

Nevil Shute Nevil Shute Norway (17 January 189912 January 1960) was an English novelist and aeronautical engineer who spent his later years in Australia. He used his full name in his engineering career and Nevil Shute as his pen name to protect his enginee ...

and

Morris West Morris Langlo West (26 April 19169 October 1999) was an Australian novelist and playwright, best known for his novels ''The Devil's Advocate (West novel), The Devil's Advocate'' (1959), ''The Shoes of the Fisherman (novel), The Shoes of the Fi ...

. Notable contemporary expatriate authors include the feminist

Germaine Greer Germaine Greer (; born 29 January 1939) is an Australian writer and feminist, regarded as one of the major voices of the second-wave feminism movement in the latter half of the 20th century. Specializing in English and women's literature, she ...

, art historian Robert Hughes and humorists

Barry Humphries John Barry Humphries (17 February 1934 – 22 April 2023) was an Australian comedian, actor, author and satirist. He was best known for writing and playing his stage and television characters Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson. He appeare ...

and

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.Henry Lawson Henry Archibald Hertzberg Lawson (17 June 1867 – 2 September 1922) was an Australian writer and bush poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period ...

Banjo Paterson Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, (17 February 18645 February 1941) was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author, widely considered one of the greatest writers of Australia's colonial period. Born in rural New South Wales, Paterson worke ...

C. J. Dennis Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis (7 September 1876 – 22 June 1938), better known as C. J. Dennis, was an Australian poet and journalist known for his best-selling verse novel ''The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke'' (1915). Alongside ...

and

Dorothea Mackellar Isobel Marion Dorothea Mackellar (1 July 1885 – 14 January 1968) was an Australian poet and fiction writer. Her poem " My Country" is widely known in Australia, especially its second stanza, which begins: "I love a sunburnt country / ...

. Dennis wrote in the Australian vernacular, while Mackellar wrote the iconic patriotic poem'' My Country''. Lawson and Paterson clashed in the famous "

Bulletin Debate The "''Bulletin'' Debate" was a well-publicised dispute in '' The Bulletin'' magazine between two of Australia's best known writers and poets, Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson. The debate took place via a series of poems about the merits of li ...

" over the nature of life in Australia with Lawson considered to have the harder edged view of the Bush and Paterson the romantic. Lawson is widely regarded as one of Australia's greatest writers of short stories, while Paterson's poems remain amongst the most popular Australian bush poems. Significant poets of the 20th century included Dame

Mary Gilmore Dame Mary Jean Gilmore (née Cameron; 16 August 18653 December 1962) was an Australian writer and journalist known for her prolific contributions to Australian literature and the broader national discourse. She wrote both prose and poetry. Gi ...

Kenneth Slessor Kenneth Adolphe Slessor (27 March 190130 June 1971) was an Australian poet, journalist and official war correspondent in World War II. He was one of Australia's leading poets, notable particularly for the absorption of modernist influences int ...

A. D. Hope Alec Derwent Hope (21 July 190713 July 2000) was an Australian poet and essayist known for his satirical slant. He was also a critic, teacher and academic. He was referred to in an American journal as "the 20th century's greatest 18th-century ...

and

Judith Wright Judith Arundell Wright (31 May 191525 June 2000) was an Australian poet, environmentalist and campaigner for Aboriginal land rights. She was a recipient of the Christopher Brennan Award and nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 196 ...

. Among the best known contemporary poets are Les Murray and Bruce Dawe, whose poems are often studied in Australian high schools. Novelists of classic Australian works include

Marcus Clarke Marcus Andrew Hislop Clarke (24 April 1846 – 2 August 1881) was an English-born Australian novelist, journalist, poet, editor, librarian, and playwright. He is best known for his 1874 novel ''For the Term of His Natural Life'', about the con ...

(''

For the Term of His Natural Life ''For the Term of His Natural Life'' is a story written by Marcus Clarke and published in ''The Australian Journal'' between 1870 and 1872 (as ''His Natural Life''). It was published as a novel in 1874 and is the best known novelisation of life ...

''),

Miles Franklin Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin (14 October 187919 September 1954), known as Miles Franklin, was an Australian writer and feminist who is best known for her novel ''My Brilliant Career'', published by Blackwoods of Edinburgh in 1901. While s ...

('' My Brilliant Career''),

Henry Handel Richardson Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson (3 January 1870 – 20 March 1946), known by her pen name Henry Handel Richardson, was an Australian author. Life Born in East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, into a prosperous family that later fell on har ...

('' The Fortunes of Richard Mahony''), Joseph Furphy ('' Such Is Life''),

Rolf Boldrewood Thomas Alexander Browne (born Brown, 6 August 1826 – 11 March 1915) was an Australian author who published many of his works under the pseudonym Rolf Boldrewood. He is best known for his 1882 bushranging novel '' Robbery Under Arms''. Biog ...

(''

Robbery Under Arms ''Robbery Under Arms'' is a bushranger novel by Thomas Alexander Browne, published under his pen name Rolf Boldrewood. It was first published in serialised form by ''The Sydney Mail'' between July 1882 and August 1883, then in three volumes in ...

'') and

Ruth Park Rosina Ruth Lucia Park AM (24 August 191714 December 2010) was a New Zealand–born Australian author. Her best known works are the novels '' The Harp in the South'' (1948) and '' Playing Beatie Bow'' (1980), and the children's radio serial '' ...

(''

The Harp in the South ''The Harp in the South'' is the debut novel by New Zealand-born Australian author Ruth Park. Published in 1948, it portrays the life of a Catholic Irish Australian family living in the Sydney suburb of Surry Hills, which was at that time an i ...

''). In terms of children's literature,

Norman Lindsay Norman Alfred William Lindsay (22 February 1879 – 21 November 1969) was an Australian artist, etcher, sculptor, writer, art critic, novelist, cartoonist and amateur boxing, boxer. One of the most prolific and popular Australian artists of hi ...

(''

The Magic Pudding ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

''),

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 ...

('' Possum Magic''), and

May Gibbs Cecilia May Gibbs Order of the British Empire, MBE (17 January 1877 – 27 November 1969) was an Australian children's author, illustrator, and cartoonist. She is best known for her gumnut babies (also known as "bush babies" or "bush fairies"), ...

(''

Snugglepot and Cuddlepie ''Snugglepot and Cuddlepie'' is a series of books written by Australians, Australian author May Gibbs. The books chronicle the adventures of the eponymous Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. The central story arc concerns Snugglepot and Cuddlepie (who ar ...

'') are among the Australian classics, while

Melina Marchetta Carmelina Marchetta (born 25 March 1965) is an Australian writer and teacher. Marchetta is best known as the author of teen novels, '' Looking for Alibrandi'', '' Saving Francesca'' and '' On the Jellicoe Road''. She has twice been awarded the ...

('' Looking for Alibrandi'') is a modern YA classic. Eminent Australian playwrights have included

Ray Lawler Raymond Evenor Lawler (23 May 1921 – 24 July 2024) was an Australian playwright and dramatist, actor, theatre producer and director. Lawler's most notable play was his tenth, '' Summer of the Seventeenth Doll'' (1953), which had its premie ...

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 ...

, Alan Seymour and

Nick Enright Nicholas Paul Enright AM (22 December 1950 – 30 March 2003) was an Australian dramatist, playwright and theatre director. Early life Enright was born on 22 December 1950 to a prosperous professional Catholic family in East Maitland, New So ...

. Among prominent short story writers are

Steele Rudd Steele Rudd was the pen name of Arthur Hoey Davis (14 November 1868 – 11 October 1935) an Australian author, best known for his short story collection ''On Our Selection''. In 2009, as part of the Q150 celebrations, Rudd was named one of the ...

Henry Lawson Henry Archibald Hertzberg Lawson (17 June 1867 – 2 September 1922) was an Australian writer and bush poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period ...

, Beverley Farmer,

Kate Grenville Catherine Elizabeth Grenville (born 1950) is an Australian author. She has published fifteen books, including fiction, non-fiction, biography, and books about the writing process. In 2001, she won the Orange Prize for Fiction, Orange Prize for ...

, and

Helen Garner Helen Garner (née Ford, born 7 November 1942) is an Australian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist. Garner's debut novel, first novel, ''Monkey Grip (novel), Monkey Grip'', published in 1977, immediately established her ...

. Although historically only a small proportion of Australia's population have lived outside the major cities, many of Australia's most distinctive stories and legends originate in the

outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than Australian bush, the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastli ...

, in the drovers and squatters and people of the barren, dusty plains.

David Unaipon David Ngunaitponi (28 September 1872 – 7 February 1967), known as David Unaipon, was an Aboriginal Australian preacher, inventor, and author. A Ngarrindjeri man, his contribution to Australian society helped to break many stereotypes of Abo ...

is known as the first Aboriginal author.

Oodgeroo Noonuccal Oodgeroo Noonuccal ( ; born Kathleen Jean Mary Ruska, later Kath Walker (3 November 192016 September 1993) was an Aboriginal Australian political activist, artist and educator, who campaigned for Aboriginal rights. Noonuccal was best known for ...

was the first

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...

to publish a book of verse. A ground-breaking memoir about the experiences of the

Stolen Generations The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Aboriginal Australians, Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian Gover ...

can be found in Sally Morgan's '' My Place''.

Charles Bean Charles Edwin Woodrow Bean (18 November 1879 – 30 August 1968), also commonly identified as C. E. W. Bean, was an Australian historian and one of Australia's official war correspondents. He was editor and principal author of the 12-volume ...

Geoffrey Blainey Geoffrey Norman Blainey, (born 11 March 1930) is an Australian historian, academic, best selling author and commentator. Blainey is noted for his authoritative texts on the economic and social history of Australia, including ''The Tyranny of ...

, Robert Hughes,

Manning Clark Charles Manning Hope Clark, (3 March 1915 – 23 May 1991) was an Australian historian and the author of the best-known general history of Australia, his six-volume ''A History of Australia'', published between 1962 and 1987. He has been descri ...

, Claire Wright, and

Marcia Langton Marcia Lynne Langton (born 31 October 1951) is an Aboriginal Australian writer and academic. she is the Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne. Langton is an acti ...

are authors of important Australian histories.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers and themes

Writing by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people While his father, James Unaipon (c.1835-1907), contributed to accounts of Aboriginal mythology written by the missionary George Taplin,

(1872–1967) provided the first accounts of Aboriginal mythology written by an Aboriginal: '' Legendary Tales of the Aborigines''. For this he is known as the first Aboriginal author.

(1920–1993) was a famous Aboriginal poet, writer and rights activist credited with publishing the first Aboriginal book of verse: '' We Are Going'' (1964). Sally Morgan's novel '' My Place'' was considered a breakthrough memoir in terms of bringing indigenous stories to wider notice. Leading Aboriginal activists

(

First Australians ''First Australians'' is a seven-part Australian historical Documentary film, documentary TV series produced by Blackfella Films over the course of six years, and first aired on SBS (Australian TV channel), SBS TV in October 2008. A book was pu ...

, 2008) and

Noel Pearson Noel Pearson (born 25 June 1965) is an Australian lawyer and founder of the Cape York Partnership, an organisation promoting the economic and social development of Cape York. He is also the Founder of Good to Great Schools Australia an organi ...

('' Up from the Mission'', 2009) are active contemporary contributors to Australian literature. The voices of

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

are being increasingly recognised and include the

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

Jack Davis and Kevin Gilbert. Writers coming to prominence in the 21st century include

Kim Scott Kim Scott (born 18 February 1957) is an Australian novelist of Aboriginal Australian ancestry. He is a descendant of the Noongar people of Western Australia. Biography Scott was born in Perth, Western Australia, in 1957, and is the eldest o ...

Alexis Wright Alexis Wright (born 25 November 1950) is an Aboriginal Australian writer. She is best known for winning the Miles Franklin Award for her 2006 novel '' Carpentaria''. She was the first writer to win the Stella Prize twice, in 2018 for her "colle ...

, Kate Howarth,

Tara June Winch Tara June Winch (born 2 December 1983) is an Australian writer. She is the 2020 winner of the Miles Franklin Award for her book '' The Yield''. Biography Tara June Winch was born in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia on 2 December 1983. He ...

Yvette Holt Yvette Henry Holt is an Australian literary executive, multi-award-winning contemporary Australian Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal poet, essayist, researcher and editor. She heralds from the Bidjara (Warrego River), Bidjara, Yiman people, Yima ...

and

Anita Heiss Anita Marianne Heiss (born 1968) is an Aboriginal Australian author, poet, cultural activist and social commentator. She is an advocate for Indigenous Australian literature and literacy, through her writing for adults and children and her memb ...

. Indigenous authors who have won Australia's high prestige

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 ...

include

who was joint winner (with

Thea Astley Thea Beatrice May Astley (25 August 1925 – 17 August 2004) was an Australian novelist and short story writer. She was a prolific writer who was published for over 40 years from 1958. At the time of her death, she had won more Miles Franklin ...

) in 2000 for '' Benang'' and again in 2011 for ''

That Deadman Dance ''That Deadman Dance'' is the third novel by Western Australian author Kim Scott. It was first published in 2010 by Picador (Australia) and by Bloomsbury in the UK, US and Canada in 2012. It won the 2011 Regional Commonwealth Writers' Prize, th ...

.''

won the award in 2007 for her novel ''

Carpentaria ''Carpentaria acuminata'' (carpentaria palm), the sole species in the genus ''Carpentaria'', is a palm native to tropical coastal regions in the north of Northern Territory, Australia. It is a slender palm, growing to tall in the garden situ ...

.''

Melissa Lucashenko Melissa Lucashenko is an Indigenous Australians, Indigenous Australian writer of adult literary fiction and literary non-fiction, who has also written young adult fiction, novels for teenagers. In 2013 at the Walkley Awards, she won the "Featu ...

won the award in 2019 for her novel '' Too Much Lip'', which was also short-listed for the

Stella Prize The Stella Prize is an Australian annual literary award established in 2013 for writing by Australian women in all genres, worth $50,000. It was originally proposed by Australian women writers and publishers in 2011, modelled on the UK's Bailey ...

for Australian women's writing. Letters written by notable Aboriginal leaders like

Bennelong Woollarawarre Bennelong ( 1764 – 3 January 1813) was a senior man of the Eora, an Aboriginal Australian people of the Port Jackson area, at the time of the first British settlement in Australia. Bennelong served as an interlocutor between ...

and Sir

Douglas Nicholls Sir Douglas Ralph Nicholls (9 December 1906 – 4 June 1988) was a prominent Aboriginal Australian from the Yorta Yorta people. He was a professional athlete, Churches of Christ pastor and church planter, ceremonial officer and a pioneerin ...

are also retained as treasures of Australian literature, as is the historic Yirrkala bark petitions of 1963 which is the first traditional Aboriginal document recognised by the

Australian Parliament The Parliament of Australia (officially the Parliament of the Commonwealth and also known as the Federal Parliament) is the federal legislature of Australia. It consists of three elements: the Monarchy of Australia, monarch of Australia (repr ...

AustLit AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource (also known as AustLit: Australian Literature Gateway; and AustLit: The Resource for Australian Literature) is a national bio-bibliographical database of Australian literature. It is an internet-based, ...

's BlackWords project provides a comprehensive listing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Writers and Storytellers. Writing about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples At the point of the first colonization,

had not developed a system of writing, so the first literary accounts of Aboriginal people come from the journals of early European explorers, which contain descriptions of first contact, both violent and friendly. Early accounts by Dutch explorers and by the English buccaneer

William Dampier William Dampier (baptised 5 September 1651; died March 1715) was an English explorer, pirate, privateer, navigator, and naturalist who became the first Englishman to explore parts of what is today Australia, and the first person to circumnavig ...

wrote of the "natives of New Holland" as being "barbarous savages", but by the time of Captain

James Cook Captain (Royal Navy), Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 176 ...

and

First Fleet The First Fleet were eleven British ships which transported a group of settlers to mainland Australia, marking the beginning of the History of Australia (1788–1850), European colonisation of Australia. It consisted of two Royal Navy vessel ...

marine

Watkin Tench Lieutenant General Watkin Tench (6 October 1758 – 7 May 1833) was a British military officer who is best known for publishing two books describing his experiences in the First Fleet, which established the first European settlement in Australia ...

(the era of

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Republic of Geneva, Genevan philosopher (''philosophes, philosophe''), writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment through ...

), accounts of Aborigines were more sympathetic and romantic: "these people may truly be said to be in the pure state of nature, and may appear to some to be the most wretched upon the earth; but in reality they are far happier than ... we Europeans", wrote Cook in his journal on 23 August 1770. Noel Pearson 8Feb10

Many notable works have been written by non-indigenous Australians on Aboriginal themes. Examples include the poems of

; ''

The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith ''The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith'' is a 1972 Booker Prize-nominated Australian novel by Thomas Keneally, and a 1978 Australian film of the same name directed by Fred Schepisi. The novel is based on the life of bushranger Jimmy Governor, the ...

'' by

, ''Ilbarana'' by Donald Stuart, and the short story by

: "The Only Speaker of his Tongue". Histories covering Indigenous themes include

(Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay et Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson); Roderick J. Flanagan (''The Aborigines of Australia'', 1888); ''The Native Tribes of Central Australia'' by Spencer and Gillen, 1899; the diaries of Donald Thomson on the subject of the

Yolngu The Yolngu or Yolŋu ( or ) are an aggregation of Aboriginal Australian people inhabiting north-eastern Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. ''Yolngu'' means "person" in the Yolŋu languages. The terms Murngin, Wulamba, Yalnuma ...

people of

Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territorial capital, Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compa ...

(c.1935-1943);

Alan Moorehead Alan McCrae Moorehead, (22 July 1910 – 29 September 1983) was a war correspondent and author of popular histories, most notably two books on the nineteenth-century exploration of the Nile, ''The White Nile'' (1960) and ''The Blue Nile'' (1962 ...

(''The fatal Impact'', 1966);

(''Triumph of the Nomads'', 1975); Henry Reynolds ('' The Other Side of the Frontier'', 1981); and

(First Australians, 2008). Differing interpretations of Aboriginal history are also the subject of contemporary debate in Australia, notably between the essayists

Robert Manne Robert Michael Manne (born 31 October 1947) is an Emeritus Professor of Politics and Vice-Chancellor's Fellow at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. He is a leading Australian public intellectual. Background Robert Manne was born in Mel ...

and

Keith Windschuttle Keith Windschuttle (1942 – 8 April 2025) was an Australian historian. He was appointed to the board of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from 2006 to 2011. He was editor of '' Quadrant'' from 2007 to 2015 when he became chair of the bo ...

Early and classic works

For centuries before the British settlement of Australia, European writers wrote fictional accounts of an imagining of a ''Great Southern Land''. In 1642 Abel Janszoon Tasman landed in

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

and after examining notches cut at considerable distances on tree trunks, speculated that the newly discovered country must be peopled by giants. Later, the British satirist,

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish writer, essayist, satirist, and Anglican cleric. In 1713, he became the Dean (Christianity), dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and was given the sobriquet "Dean Swi ...

, set the land of the

Houyhnhnms Houyhnhnms are a fictional race of intelligent horses described in the last part of Jonathan Swift's satirical 1726 novel ''Gulliver's Travels''. The name is pronounced either or . Swift apparently intended all words of the Houyhnhnm language t ...

Gulliver's Travels ''Gulliver's Travels'', originally titled ''Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships'', is a 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clerg ...

to the west of Tasmania. In 1797 the British Romantic poet

Robert Southey Robert Southey (; 12 August 1774 – 21 March 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic poetry, Romantic school, and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. Like the other Lake Poets, William Wordsworth an ...

—then a young

Jacobin The Society of the Friends of the Constitution (), renamed the Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality () after 1792 and commonly known as the Jacobin Club () or simply the Jacobins (; ), was the most influential political cl ...

—included a section in his collection, "Poems", a selection of poems under the heading, "Botany Bay Eclogues," in which he portrayed the plight and stories of transported convicts in

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. Among the first true works of literature produced in Australia were the accounts of the settlement of Sydney by

, a captain of the marines on the

to arrive in 1788. In 1819, poet, explorer, journalist and politician

William Wentworth William Charles Wentworth (August 179020 March 1872) was an Australian statesman, pastoralist, explorer, newspaper editor, lawyer, politician and author, who became one of the wealthiest and most powerful figures in colonial New South Wales. He ...

published the first book written by an Australian: ''A Statistical, Historical, and Political Description of the Colony of New South Wales and Its Dependent Settlements in Van Diemen's Land, With a Particular Enumeration of the Advantages Which These Colonies Offer for Emigration and Their Superiority in Many Respects Over Those Possessed by the United States of America'', in which he advocated an elected assembly for New South Wales, trial by jury and settlement of Australia by free emigrants rather than convicts. The first novel to be published in Australia was a crime novel, ''Quintus Servinton: A Tale founded upon Incidents of Real Occurrence'' by

Henry Savery Henry Savery (4 August 1791 – 6 February 1842) was a Convictism in Australia, convict transported to Port Arthur, Tasmania, and Australia's first novelist. It is generally agreed that his writing is more important for its historical value than ...

published in Hobart in 1830. Early popular works tended to be the 'ripping yarn' variety, telling tales of derring-do against the new

frontier A frontier is a political and geographical term referring to areas near or beyond a boundary. Australia The term "frontier" was frequently used in colonial Australia in the meaning of country that borders the unknown or uncivilised, th ...

of the Australian

. Writers such as

(''

''),

(''

''),

('' The Fortunes of Richard Mahony'') and Joseph Furphy ('' Such Is Life'') embodied these stirring ideals in their tales and, particularly the latter, tried to accurately record the

vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...

language of the common Australian. These

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

s also gave valuable insights into the

penal colonies A penal colony or exile colony is a Human settlement, settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general population by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colony, colonial territory. Although the te ...

which helped form the country and also the early rural settlements. In 1838 ''The Guardian: a tale'' by Anna Maria Bunn was published in Sydney. It was the first Australian novel printed and published in mainland Australia and the first Australian novel written by a woman. It is a Gothic romance.

('' My Brilliant Career'') and Jeannie Gunn ('' We of the Never Never'') wrote of lives of European pioneers in the Australian bush from a female perspective. Albert Facey wrote of the experiences of the Goldfields and of

Gallipoli The Gallipoli Peninsula (; ; ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles strait to the east. Gallipoli is the Italian form of the Greek name (), meaning ' ...

(''

A Fortunate Life ''A Fortunate Life'' is an autobiography by Albert Facey published in 1981, nine months before his death. It chronicles his early life in Western Australia, his experiences as a private during the Gallipoli campaign of World War I and his re ...

'').

wrote of the sectarian divisions of life in impoverished 1940s inner city Sydney (''

''). The experience of Australian

PoWs A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

in the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theatre, was the Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allies in East Asia, East and Southeast As ...

is recounted by

in ''

A Town Like Alice ''A Town Like Alice'' (United States title: ''The Legacy'') is a romance novel by Nevil Shute, published in 1950 when Shute had newly settled in Australia. Jean Paget, a young Englishwoman, becomes romantically interested in a fellow prisoner ...

'' and in the autobiography of Sir

Edward Dunlop Edward Dunlop may refer to: * Ed Dunlop (Edward A. L. Dunlop, born 1968), British thoroughbred racehorse trainer * Edward Arunah Dunlop (1876–1934), Canadian industrialist and politician * Edward Arunah Dunlop Jr. (1919–1981), politician in On ...

was an Australian war correspondent and novelist who gained international acclaim. A number of notable classic works by international writers deal with Australian subjects, among them

D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, literary critic, travel writer, essayist, and painter. His modernist works reflect on modernity, social alienation ...

's ''

Kangaroo Kangaroos are marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use, the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

''. The journals of

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

contain the famous naturalist's first impressions of Australia, gained on his tour aboard the Beagle that inspired his writing of

On the Origin of Species ''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life'')The book's full original title was ''On the Origin of Species by M ...

. ''The Wayward Tourist: Mark Twain's Adventures in Australia'' contains the acclaimed American humourist's musings on Australia from his 1895 lecture tour. In 2012, ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'' reported that Text Publishing was releasing an Australian classics series in 2012, to address a "neglect of Australian literature" by universities and "British dominated" publishing houses—citing out of print Miles Franklin award winners such as David Ireland's ''The Glass Canoe'' and

Sumner Locke Elliott Sumner Locke Elliott (17 October 191724 June 1991) was an Australian (later American) novelist and playwright. Biography Elliott was born in Sydney to the writer Sumner Locke and the journalist Henry Logan Elliott. His mother died of eclampsi ...

's ''Careful, He Might Hear You'' as key examples.

Children's literature

Ethel Turner Ethel Turner (24 January 1872 – 8 April 1958) was an English-born Australian novelist and children's literature writer. Life She was born Ethel Mary Burwell in Doncaster in England. Her father died when she was two, leaving her mother Sarah ...

's ''

Seven Little Australians ''Seven Little Australians'' is a classic Australian children's literature novel by Ethel Turner, published in 1894. Set mainly in Sydney in the 1880s, it relates the adventures of the seven mischievous Woolcot children, their stern army father ...

'', which relates the adventures of seven mischievous children in Sydney, has been in print since 1894, longer than any other Australian children's novel. ''

The Getting of Wisdom ''The Getting of Wisdom'' is a novel by Australian novelist Henry Handel Richardson. It was first published in 1910, and has almost always been in print ever since. Author Henry Handel Richardson was the pseudonym of Ethel Florence Lindesa ...

'' (1910) by

, about an unconventional schoolgirl in Melbourne, has enjoyed a similar success and been praised by

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...

and

. Other perennial favourites of Australian children's literature include

Dorothy Wall Dorothy Wall (12 January 1894 – 21 January 1942) was a New Zealand-born writer and illustrator of children's fiction books. She is most famous for creating Blinky Bill, an anthropomorphic koala who was the central character in her books ''B ...

's ''

Blinky Bill Blinky Bill is an anthropomorphic koala and children's fictional character created by author and illustrator Dorothy Wall. The character of Blinky first appeared in Brooke Nicholls' 1933 book, ''Jacko – the Broadcasting Kookaburra'', which ...

'',

Ethel Pedley Ethel Charlotte Pedley (19 June 1859 – 6 August 1898) was an English-Australian author and musician. Early life Ethel Charlotte Pedley was born on 19 June 1859 at Acton, near London. She was the daughter of Frederick Pedley and his wife ...

's ''

Dot and the Kangaroo ''Dot and the Kangaroo'' is an 1899 Australian children's book written by Ethel C. Pedley about a little girl named Dot who gets lost in the Australian bush and is eventually befriended by a kangaroo and several other marsupials. The book was ...

'',

' ''

'',

's ''

'',

's '' The Muddleheaded Wombat'' and

's '' Possum Magic''. These classic works employ

anthropomorphism Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

to bring alive the creatures of the

, thus Bunyip Bluegum of ''The Magic Pudding'' is a koala who leaves his tree in search of adventure, while in ''Dot and the Kangaroo'' a little girl lost in the bush is befriended by a group of

marsupials Marsupials are a diverse group of mammals belonging to the infraclass Marsupialia. They are natively found in Australasia, Wallacea, and the Americas. One of marsupials' unique features is their reproductive strategy: the young are born in a ...

. May Gibbs crafted a story of protagonists modelled on the appearance of young

eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of more than 700 species of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae. Most species of ''Eucalyptus'' are trees, often Mallee (habit), mallees, and a few are shrubs. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalyp ...

(gum tree) nuts and pitted these ''gumnut babies'', Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, against the antagonist Banksia men. Gibbs' influence has lasted through the generations – contemporary children's author

Ursula Dubosarsky Ursula Dubosarsky (born ''Ursula Coleman''; 1961 in Sydney, Australia) is an Australian writer of fiction and non-fiction for children and young adults, whose work is characterised by a child's vision and comic voice of both clarity and ambigui ...

has cited ''Snugglepot and Cuddlepie'' as one of her favourite books. In the middle of the twentieth century, children's literature languished, with popular British authors dominating the Australian market. But in the 1960s

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

published several Australian children's authors, and

Angus & Robertson Angus & Robertson (A&R) is a major Australian bookseller, publisher and printer. As book publishers, A&R has contributed substantially to the promotion and development of Australian literature.Alison, Jennifer (2001). "Publishers and editors: A ...

appointed their first specialist children's editor. The best-known writers to emerge in this period were Hesba Brinsmead, Ivan Southall, Colin Thiele, Patricia Wrightson,

Nan Chauncy Nan Chauncy (28 May 1900 – 1 May 1970) was a British-born Australian children's writer. Early life Chauncy was born Nancen Beryl Masterman in Northwood, Middlesex (now in London), and emigrated to Tasmania, Australia, with her family in 1912 ...

, Joan Phipson and Eleanor Spence, their works primarily set in the Australian landscape. In 1971, Southall won the Carnegie Medal for '' Josh''. In 1986, Patricia Wrightson received the international

Hans Christian Andersen Award The Hans Christian Andersen Awards are two literary awards given by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), recognising one living author and one living illustrator for their "lasting contribution to children's literature". Th ...

. The

Children's Book Council of Australia A child () is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking countries, the legal definition of ''chi ...

has presented annual awards for books of literary merit since 1946 and has other awards for outstanding contributions to Australian children's literature. Notable winners and shortlisted works have inspired several well-known Australian films from original novels, including the Silver Brumby series, a collection by

Elyne Mitchell Elyne Mitchell, Order of Australia, OAM (née Chauvel, 30 December 1913 – 4 March 2002) was an Australian author noted for the ''Silver Brumby'' series of children's novels. Her nonfiction works draw on family history and culture. Biography Sy ...

which recount the life and adventures of Thowra, a

Snowy Mountains The Snowy Mountains, known informally as "The Snowies", is an IBRA subregion in southern New South Wales, Australia, and is the tallest mountain range in mainland Australia, being part of the continent's Great Dividing Range, a cordillera syste ...

brumby stallion; '' Storm Boy'' (1964), by Colin Thiele, about a boy and his pelican and the relationships he has with his father, the pelican, and an outcast Aboriginal man called Fingerbone; the Sydney-based Victorian era time travel adventure ''

Playing Beatie Bow ''Playing Beatie Bow'' is a popular Australian children's novel, written by Ruth Park and first published on 31 January 1980. It features a time slip in Sydney, Australia. Plot summary Lynette Kirk has been a happy child, cheery about her paren ...

'' (1980) by

; and, for older children and mature readers,

's 1993 novel about a Sydney high school girl '' Looking for Alibrandi''. Robin Klein's '' Came Back to Show You I Could Fly'' is a story about the beautiful relationship between an eleven-year-old boy and an older, drug-addicted girl.

Jackie French Jacqueline Anne French (née Ffrench, born 29 November 1953), known professionally as Jackie French, is an Australian author who has written across several genres for both adults and children. Her most notable works include '' Rain Stones, ...

, widely described as Australia's most popular children's author, has written about 170 books, including two CBCA Children's Book of the Year Award winners. One of them, the critically acclaimed '' Hitler's Daughter'' (1999), is a "what if?" story that explores mind-provoking issues about what would have happened if

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

had had a daughter. French is also the author of the highly praised '' Diary of a Wombat'' (2003), which won awards such as the 2003

COOL Award The COOL Awards is an annual children's choice award voted on by students in Canberra, the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Children are encouraged to read and vote for their favourite books. The votes are tallied and the awards made. ...

and 2004

BILBY Award The BILBY Awards are organised annually by the Queensland Branch of the Children's Book Council of Australia. The name of the award, BILBY, is an acronym of 'Books I Love Best Yearly'. These awards are children's choice awards. Each year Queens ...

, among others. It was also named an honour book for the CBCA Children's Book of the Year Award for picture books. Paul Jennings is a prolific writer of contemporary Australian fiction for young people whose career began with collections of short stories such as '' Unreal!'' (1985) and '' Unbelievable!'' (1987); many of the stories were adapted as episodes of the award-winning television show ''

Round the Twist ''Round the Twist'' is an Australian children's comedy drama television series which follows the supernatural adventures of the Twist family, who leave their conventional residence to live in a lighthouse, in the fictional coastal town of Port ...

''. The world's richest prize in children's literature has been received by two Australians,

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 ...

, who won the 2008

Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award () is an international children's literary award established by the Swedish government in 2002 to honour the Swedish children's author Astrid Lindgren (1907–2002). The prize is five million SEK, making it ...

and

Shaun Tan Shaun Tan (born 15 January 1974) is an Australian artist, writer and film maker. He won an Academy Award for '' The Lost Thing'', a 2011 animated short film adaptation of the 2000 picture book he wrote and illustrated. He also wrote and illustrat ...

, who won in 2011. Hartnett has a long and distinguished career, publishing her first novel at 15. She is known for her dark and often controversial themes. She has won several awards, including the Kathleen Mitchell Award and the Victorian Premier's Award for ''Sleeping Dogs'', Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and the Aurealis Award, Best Young Adult Novel (Australian speculative fiction) for ''Thursday's Child'' and the CBCA Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers for ''Forest''. Tan won this for his career contribution to "children's and young adult literature in the broadest sense". Tan has been awarded various literary awards, including the

Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis The (German Youth Literature Award) is an annual award established in 1956 by the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth to recognise outstanding works of children's and young adult literature. It is Germany's only ...

in 2009 for ''Tales from Outer Suburbia'' and a New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books award in 2007 for ''The Arrival''. Alongside his numerous literary awards, Tan's adaption of his book ''

The Lost Thing ''The Lost Thing'' is a picture book written and illustrated by Shaun Tan that was also adapted into an Academy Award-winning animated short film. Plot Set in a dystopian Melbourne, Australia, in the near future, ''The Lost Thing'' is a story ...

'' also won him an Oscar for best animated short film. Other awards Tan has won include a

World Fantasy Award for Best Artist The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk of a "plu ...

, and a

Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) and chosen by its members. The award is administered by th ...

for Best Professional Artist.

Expatriate authors

A generation of leading contemporary international writers who left Australia for Britain and the United States in the 1960s have remained regular and passionate contributors of Australian themed literary works throughout their careers including:

Geoffrey Robertson Geoffrey Ronald Robertson (born 30 September 1946) is an Australian-British barrister, academic, author and broadcaster. Robertson is a founder and joint head of Doughty Street Chambers. He serves as a Master of the Bench at the Middle T ...

and

. Several of these writers had links to the

Sydney Push The Sydney Push was an intellectual subculture in Sydney from the late 1940s to the early 1970s. Its politics were predominantly left-wing libertarianism. The Push operated in a pub culture and included university students, academics, manual w ...

intellectual sub-culture in Sydney from the late 1940s to the early 1970s; and to '' Oz'', a satirical magazine originating in Sydney, and later produced in London (from 1967 to 1973). After a long media career, Clive James remained a leading humourist and author based in Britain whose memoir series was rich in reflections on Australian society (including his 2007 book '' Cultural Amnesia''). Robert Hughes has produced a number of historical works on Australia (including ''The Art of Australia'' (1966) and ''

The Fatal Shore ''The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia's Founding'' is a 1986 book by Robert Hughes. It provides a history of the early years of British colonisation of Australia, and especially the history and social effects of Britain's convict transpor ...

'' (1987)). Barry Humphries took his

dadaist Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had s ...

absurdist theatrical talents and pen to London in the 1960s, becoming an institution on British television and later attaining popularity in the USA. Humphries' outlandish Australian caricatures, including Dame

Edna Everage Dame Edna Everage, often known simply as Dame Edna, is a character created and portrayed by Australian comedian Barry Humphries, known for her lilac-coloured ("wisteria hue") hair and cat eye glasses ("face furniture"); her favourite flower, ...

Barry McKenzie Barry McKenzie (full name: Barrington Bradman Bing McKenzie)Rebecca Coyle and Michael Hannan, La Trobe University, 2005 is a fictional character created in 1964 by the Australian comedian Barry Humphries, suggested by Peter Cook, for a comic s ...

and Les Patterson have starred in books, stage and screen to great acclaim over five decades and his biographer Anne Pender described him in 2010 as the most significant comedian since

Charles Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered ...

. His own literary works include the Dame Edna biographies ''My Gorgeous Life'' (1989) and ''Handling Edna'' (2010) and the autobiography ''My Life As Me: A Memoir'' (2002). Geoffrey Robertson KC is a leading international human rights lawyer, academic, author and broadcaster whose books include ''The Justice Game'' (1998) and ''Crimes Against Humanity'' (1999). Leading feminist Germaine Greer, author of ''

The Female Eunuch ''The Female Eunuch'' is a 1970 book by Germaine Greer that became an international bestseller and an important text in the feminist movement. Greer's thesis is that the "traditional" suburban, consumerist, nuclear family represses women sexual ...

'', has spent much of her career in England but continues to study, critique, condemn and adore her homeland (recent work includes ''Whitefella Jump Up: The Shortest Way to Nationhood'', 2004).

Other contemporary works and authors

Martin Boyd Martin à Beckett Boyd (10 June 1893 – 3 June 1972) was an Australian writer born into the à Beckett–Boyd family, a family synonymous with the establishment, the judiciary, publishing and literature, and the visual arts since the early 19th ...

(1893–1972) was a distinguished memoirist, novelist and poet, whose works included social comedies and the serious reflections of a pacifist faced with a time of war. Among his Langton series of novels—''

The Cardboard Crown ''The Cardboard Crown'' (1952) is a novel by Australian writer Martin Boyd. It is the first in the author's "Langton Tetralogy" (which comprises ''The Cardboard Crown'', ''A Difficult Young Man'', '' Outbreak of Love'' and ''When Blackbirds Sin ...

'' (1952), ''

A Difficult Young Man ''A Difficult Young Man'' (1955) is a novel by Australian writer Martin Boyd. It is the second in the author's "Langton Tetralogy" (which comprises '' The Cardboard Crown'', ''A Difficult Young Man'', '' Outbreak of Love'' and '' When Blackbirds ...

'' (1955), '' Outbreak of Love'' (1957)—earned high praise in Britain and the United States, though despite their Australian themes, were largely ignored in Australia.

(1912–1990) became the first Australian to be awarded the

Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...

in 1973 "for an epic and psychological narrative art which has introduced a new continent into literature". White's

first novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...

, '' Happy Valley'' (1939) was inspired by the landscape and his work as a jackaroo on the land at

Adaminaby Adaminaby is a small town near the Snowy Mountains north-west of Cooma, New South Wales, Cooma, New South Wales, Australia, in the Snowy Monaro Regional Council. The historic town, of 301 people at the , is a trout fishing centre and winter spo ...

in the Snowy Mountains, but became an international success and won the Australian Literary Society's gold medal. Born to a conservative, wealthy Anglo-Australian family, he later wrote of conviction in left-wing causes and lived as a homosexual. Never destined for life on the land, he enrolled at Cambridge where he became a published poet. White developed as a novelist, but also had major theatrical success—including '' The Season at Sarsaparilla''. White followed '' The Tree of Man'' with ''

Voss Voss () is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality and a Districts of Norway, traditional district in Vestland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Vossevangen. Other villages inclu ...

'', which became the first winner of the

. A subsequent novel, ''

Riders in the Chariot ''Riders in the Chariot'' is the sixth novel by Australian author Patrick White. It was published in 1961 and won the Miles Franklin Award that year. It also won the 1965 Gold Medal of the Australian Literature Society. The novel is the story of ...

'' also received a Miles Franklin award—but White later refused to permit his novels to be entered for literary prizes. He turned down a knighthood, and various literary awards—but in 1973 accepted the Nobel prize. David Marr wrote of biography of White in 1991.

J. M. Coetzee John Maxwell Coetzee Order of Australia, AC Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, FRSL Order of Mapungubwe, OMG (born 9 February 1940) is a South African and Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, and translator. The recipient of the 2003 ...

, who was born in South Africa and was resident there when awarded the

in 2003, now lives in Adelaide, South Australia, and is an Australian citizen.

's ''

The Thorn Birds ''The Thorn Birds'' is a 1977 novel by Australian author Colleen McCullough. Set primarily on Drogheda—a fictional sheep station in the Australian Outback named after Drogheda, Ireland—the story focuses on the Cleary family and spans 1915 ...

'', 1977, is Australia's highest selling novel and one of the biggest selling novels of all time with around 30 million copies sold by 2009.

wrote ''

'', 1972 and ''

Schindler's Ark ''Schindler's Ark'' is a historical fiction published in 1982 by the Australian novelist Thomas Keneally. It is based on the fictionalized story of the historical figure, Oskar Schindler. The United States edition of the book was titled ''Schin ...

'', 1982. This latter work was the inspiration for the film ''

Schindler's List ''Schindler's List'' is a 1993 American epic historical drama film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg and written by Steven Zaillian. It is based on the historical novel '' Schindler's Ark'' (1982) by Thomas Keneally. The film follows ...

''. Other notable Australian novels converted to celluloid include:

Paul Brickhill Paul Chester Jerome Brickhill (20 December 191623 April 1991) was an Australian fighter pilot, prisoner of war, and author who wrote '' The Great Escape'', '' The Dam Busters'', and ''Reach for the Sky''. Early life Brickhill was born in Melbou ...

's '' The Great Escape''; Pamela Lyndon Travers' ''

Mary Poppins Mary Poppins may refer to: * Mary Poppins (character), a nanny with magical powers * Mary Poppins (franchise), based on the fictional nanny ** Mary Poppins (book series), ''Mary Poppins'' (book series), the original 1934–1988 children's fanta ...

'';

's ''

The Shoes of the Fisherman The Shoes of the Fisherman may refer to: * ''The Shoes of the Fisherman'' (novel), a 1963 novel by the writer Morris West * ''The Shoes of the Fisherman'' (film), a 1968 film based on the novel {{disambiguation ...

'' and

Bryce Courtenay Arthur Bryce Courtenay, (14 August 1933 – 22 November 2012) was a South African-Australian advertising director and novelist. He is one of Australia's best-selling authors, notable for his book '' The Power of One''. Background and early ye ...

's '' The Power of One''. '' Careful, He Might Hear You'' by

won the Miles Franklin Award in 1963, and was the subject of a 1983 Australian film. Author David Ireland won the Miles Franklin Award three times, including for '' The Glass Canoe'' (1976). Peter Carey has also won the Miles Franklin Award three times (''

Jack Maggs ''Jack Maggs'' (1997) is a novel by Australian novelist Peter Carey. Plot summary Set in 19th century London, ''Jack Maggs'' is a reworking of the Charles Dickens novel ''Great Expectations''. The story centres around Jack Maggs (the equivale ...

'' 1998; ''

Oscar and Lucinda ''Oscar and Lucinda'' is a novel by Australian author Peter Carey. It won the 1988 Booker Prize the year it was released, and the 1989 Miles Franklin Award. It was shortlisted in 2008 for The Best of the Booker, in celebration of the prize's ...

'' 1989; and ''

Bliss BLISS is a system programming language developed at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) by W. A. Wulf, D. B. Russell, and A. N. Habermann around 1970. It was perhaps the best known system language until C debuted a few years later. Since then, C ...

'' 1981). He has twice won the

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...

with 1988's ''

'' and 2001's ''

True History of the Kelly Gang ''True History of the Kelly Gang'' is a novel by Australian writer Peter Carey, based loosely on the history of the Kelly Gang. It was first published in Brisbane by the University of Queensland Press in 2000. It won the 2001 Booker Prize a ...

''.

DBC Pierre Peter Warren Finlay (born in 1961), also known as DBC Pierre, is an Australian author who wrote the novel '' Vernon God Little''. Pierre was born in South Australia, and largely raised in Mexico. He has resided in the Republic of Ireland and ...

's '' Vernon God Little'' won the Booker Prize in 2003. Other notable writers to have emerged since the 1970s include

Janette Turner Hospital Janette Turner Hospital (née Turner) (born 1942) is an Australian-born novelist and short story writer who has lived most of her adult life in Canada or the United States, principally Boston (Massachusetts), Kingston (Ontario) and Columbia (So ...

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 ...

, Susan Johnson,

Christopher Koch Christopher John Koch AO (16 July 1932 – 23 September 2013) was an Australian novelist, known for his 1978 novel '' The Year of Living Dangerously'', which was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film by the same name for which he co-wro ...

Alex Miller Alex Miller (born 4 July 1949) is a Scottish football manager and former player. As a player, he had a 15-year career with Rangers, winning several trophies. As a manager, he won the 1991–92 Scottish League Cup with Hibernian. He subsequen ...

Shirley Hazzard Shirley Hazzard (30 January 1931 – 12 December 2016) was an Australian-American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. She was born in Australia and also held U.S. citizenship. Hazzard's 1970 novel '' The Bay of Noon'' was shortlisted ...

Richard Flanagan Richard Miller Flanagan (born 1961) is an Australian writer, who won the 2014 Man Booker Prize for his novel ''The Narrow Road to the Deep North (novel), The Narrow Road to the Deep North'' and the 2024 Baillie Gifford Prize for ''Question 7'', ...

Gerald Murnane Gerald Murnane (born 25 February 1939) is an Australian novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist. Perhaps best known for his 1982 novel ''The Plains'', he has won acclaim for his distinctive prose and exploration of memory, identity and ...

, Brenda Walker, Rod Jones and

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 ...

James Clavell James Clavell (born Charles Edmund Dumaresq Clavell; 10 October 1921 – 7 September 1994) was a British and American writer, screenwriter, director, and World War II veteran and prisoner of war. Clavell is best known for his ''Asian Saga'' nov ...

in ''

The Asian Saga The ''Asian Saga'' is a series of six novels written by James Clavell between 1962 and 1993. The novels all centre on Europeans in Asia, and together explore the impact on East and West of the meeting of these two distinct civilizations. Over ...

'' discusses an important feature of Australian literature: its portrayal of far

eastern culture Eastern culture, also known as Eastern civilization and historically as Oriental culture, is an umbrella term for the diverse cultural heritages of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, belief systems, political systems, Cultural ar ...

, from the admittedly even further east, but nevertheless western cultural viewpoint, as

did. Clavell was also a successful

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

and along with such writers as

(see above), has expanded the topics of Australian literature far beyond that one country. Other novelists to use international themes are

, Beverley Farmer and Rod Jones. ''

The Secret River ''The Secret River'' is a 2005 historical novel by Kate Grenville about an early 19th-century Englishman transported to Australia for theft. The story explores what might have happened when Europeans colonised land already inhabited by Aborigi ...

'' (2005) is an historical fiction by

imagining encounters between Aboriginal and colonial Australia which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. '' The Slap'' (2008) was an internationally successful novel by

Christos Tsiolkas Christos Tsiolkas is an Australian author, playwright, and screenwriter. He is especially known for '' The Slap'', which was both well-received critically and highly successful commercially. Several of his books have been adapted for film and t ...

which was adapted for television by

ABC1 ABC TV, formerly known as ABC1, is an Australian national public television network. It is owned and operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and is the flagship (broadcasting), flagship ABC Television (Australian TV network), A ...

in 2011, and was described in a review by Gerard Windsor as "something of an anatomy of the rising Australian middle class".

1991–1996: Grunge lit

Grunge lit (an abbreviation for "grunge literature") is an Australian

literary genre A literary genre is a category of literature. Genres may be determined by List of narrative techniques, literary technique, Tone (literature), tone, Media (communication), content, or length (especially for fiction). They generally move from mor ...

usually applied to

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent ...

al or

semi-autobiographical An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life, providing a personal narrative that reflects on the author's experiences, memories, and insights. This genre allows individuals to share thei ...

writing concerned with dissatisfied and disenfranchised

young people Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood (Maturity (psychological), maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as bei ...

living in suburban or inner-city surroundings. It was typically written by "new, young authors"Leishman, Kirsty, 'Australian Grunge Literature and the Conflict between Literary Generations', ''Journal of Australian Studies'', 23.63 (1999), pp. 94–102 who examined "gritty, dirty, real existences", of lower-income young people, whose lives revolve around a

nihilistic Nihilism () encompasses various views that reject certain aspects of existence. There have been different nihilist positions, including the views that life is meaningless, that moral values are baseless, and that knowledge is impossible. Thes ...

pursuit of casual

sex Sex is the biological trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing organism produces male or female gametes. During sexual reproduction, a male and a female gamete fuse to form a zygote, which develops into an offspring that inheri ...

recreational drug use Recreational drug use is the use of one or more psychoactive drugs to induce an altered state of consciousness, either for pleasure or for some other casual purpose or pastime. When a psychoactive drug enters the user's body, it induces an Sub ...

and

alcohol Alcohol may refer to: Common uses * Alcohol (chemistry), a class of compounds * Ethanol, one of several alcohols, commonly known as alcohol in everyday life ** Alcohol (drug), intoxicant found in alcoholic beverages ** Alcoholic beverage, an alco ...

, which are used to escape

boredom In conventional usage, boredom, , or tedium is an emotion characterized by Interest (emotion), uninterest in one's surrounding, often caused by a lack of distractions or occupations. Although, "There is no universally accepted definition of bo ...

or a general flightiness. Romantic love is seldom, as instant gratification has become the norm. It has been described as both a sub-set of

dirty realism Dirty realism is a term coined by Bill Buford of ''Granta'' magazine to define a North American literary movement. Writers in this sub-category of realism are said to depict the seamier or more mundane aspects of ordinary life in spare, unadorned ...

and an offshoot of

Generation X Generation X (often shortened to Gen X) is the Demography, demographic Cohort (statistics), cohort following the Baby Boomers and preceding Millennials. Researchers and popular media often use the mid-1960s as its starting birth years and the ...

literature.Vernay, Jean-François,
Grunge Fiction
, ''The Literary Encyclopedia'', 6 November 2008, accessed 9 September 2009 The term "grunge" is from the 1990s-era music genre of grunge. The genre was first coined in 1995 following the success of Andrew McGahan's first novel ''Praise'' which had been released in 1991 and became popular with sub-30-year-old readers, a previously under-investigated

demographic Demography () is the statistics, statistical study of human populations: their size, composition (e.g., ethnic group, age), and how they change through the interplay of fertility (births), mortality (deaths), and migration. Demographic analy ...

. Other authors considered to be "grunge lit" include

Linda Jaivin Linda Jaivin (born 27 March 1955)''Th ...

Fiona McGregor Fiona Kelly McGregor is an Australian writer, performance artist, and art critic whose third novel, ''Indelible Ink'', won the 2011 The Age Book of the Year Award. Early life and education McGregor was born in Sydney, New South Wales. Career ...

and Justine Ettler. Since its invention, the term "grunge lit" has been retrospectively applied to novels written as early as 1977, namely

's '' Monkey Grip''. Grunge lit is often raw, explicit, and vulgar, even to the point of Ettler's '' The River Ophelia'' (1995) being called pornographic. The term "grunge lit" and its use to categorize and market this diverse group of writers and authorial styles has been the subject of debate and criticism. Linda Jaivin disagreed with putting all these authors in one category, Christios Tsiolkas called the term a "media creation", and Murray Waldren denied grunge lit even was a new genre; he said the works actually are a type of the pre-existing

genre.

1998–2010s: Post-grunge lit

Post-grunge lit is a genre of Australian fiction from the late 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. It is called "post-grunge lit" to denote that this genre appeared after the 1990s Australian literary genre known as

grunge lit Grunge lit (an abbreviation for "grunge literature") is an Australian literary genre usually applied to fictional or semi-autobiographical writing concerned with dissatisfied and disenfranchised young people living in suburban or inner-city surrou ...

. Michael Robert Christie's 2009 PhD dissertation, "Unbecoming-of-Age: Australian Grunge Fiction, the Bildungsroman and the Long Labor Decade" states that there is a genre called "post Grunge it which follows the grunge lit period. Christie names three examples of Australian "post-grunge lit":

Elliot Perlman Elliot Perlman (born 7 May 1964) is an Australian author and barrister. He has written four novels ('' Three Dollars'', '' Seven Types of Ambiguity'', ''The Street Sweeper'' and ''Maybe the Horse Will Talk''), one short story collection (''The ...

's ''

Three Dollars ''Three Dollars'' is a 2005 Australian film directed by Robert Connolly and starring David Wenham, Sarah Wynter, and Frances O'Connor. It was based on a 1998 novel of the same name by Elliot Perlman. It won the 2005 Australian Film Institute ...

'' (1998), Andrew McCann's '' Subtopia'' (2005) and Anthony Macris' ''Capital''. Christie's dissertation interprets and explains these three post-grunge lit works "as responses to the embedding of

Neoliberalism Neoliberalism is a political and economic ideology that advocates for free-market capitalism, which became dominant in policy-making from the late 20th century onward. The term has multiple, competing definitions, and is most often used pe ...

in Australian and global political culture".

Kalinda Ashton Kalinda Ashton is an Australian writer based in Melbourne, Victoria. She is the author of the 2009 novel ''The Danger Game'' and was joint winner of the 2012 ''Sydney Morning Herald'' best young novelist award and a Betty Trask award The Bet ...

(born 1978) has been called a post-grunge writer, in part due to influences from grunge lit author

. Ashton is the author of the novel '' The Danger Game''. Samantha Dagg's 2017 thesis on grunge lit and post-grunge lit states that Luke Carman is a post-grunge writer. Carman's first work, a collection of interlinked semi-autobiographical short stories, explores the authentic experiences of working-class Australians in the suburbs, including issues such as drug addiction and a sense of disillusionment.

Australian writing in languages other than English

Australia has migrant groups from many countries, and members of those communities (not always of the first generation) have produced Australian writing in a variety of languages. These include

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...

, Lao, Filipino, Latvian, Ukrainian,

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

Serbian Serbian may refer to: * Pertaining to Serbia in Southeast Europe; in particular **Serbs, a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans ** Serbian language ** Serbian culture **Demographics of Serbia, includes other ethnic groups within the co ...

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

and Irish. Comparatively little attention has been devoted to such writing by mainstream critics. It has been argued that, in relation to the national literary landscape, such literary communities have a quite separate existence, with their own poetry festivals, literary competitions, magazine and newspaper reviews and features, and even local publishers. Some writers, like the Greek Australian Dimitris Tsaloumas, have published bilingually. There are now signs that such writing is attracting more academic interest. Some older works in languages other than English have been translated and received critical and historical attention long after their first publication; for example, the first Chinese-language novel to be published in Australia (and possibly the West), '' The Poison of Polygamy'' (1909–10) by Wong Shee Ping, was published in English for the first time in 2019, in a bilingual parallel edition.

Histories

History has been an important discipline in the development of Australian writing.

(1758–1833) - a British officer who arrived with the

in 1788 - later published two books on the subject of the foundations of New South Wales: ''Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay'' and ''Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson''. Written with a spirit of humanity his accounts are considered by writers including Robert Hughes and

to be essential reading for the early history of Australia/

was the official war historian of the First World War and was influential in establishing the importance of

ANZAC The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) was originally a First World War army corps of the British Empire under the command of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. It was formed in Egypt in December 1914, and operated during the ...

in Australian history and mythology, with such prose as "Anzac stood, and still stands, for reckless valor in a good cause, for enterprise, resourcefulness, fidelity, comradeship and endurance, that will never own defeat". (see works including ''The Story of ANZAC: From the Outbreak of War to the End of the First Phase of the Gallipoli Campaign 4 May 1915'', 1921). ''

Australia in the War of 1939–1945 ''Australia in the War of 1939–1945'' is a 22-volume official history series covering Australian involvement in the Second World War. The series was published by the Australian War Memorial between 1952 and 1977, most of the volumes being edi ...

'' is a 22-volume official history dedicated to Australia's Second World War efforts. the series was published by the

Australian War Memorial The Australian War Memorial (AWM) is a national war memorial, war museum, museum and archive dedicated to all Australians who died as a result of war, including peacekeeping duties. The AWM is located in Campbell, Australian Capital Territory, C ...

between 1952 and 1977. The main editor was

Gavin Long Gavin Merrick Long (31 May 1901 – 10 October 1968) was an Australian journalist and military historian. He was the general editor of the official history series '' Australia in the War of 1939–1945'' and the author of three of its twenty- ...

. A significant milestone was the

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

's six-volume ''History of Australia'', which is regarded by some as the definitive account of the nation. Clark had a talent for narrative prose and the work (published between 1969 and 1987) remains a popular and influential work. Clark's one time student

stands as another to have deeply influenced Australian historiography. His important works include '' The Tyranny of Distance'' (1966) and '' Triumph of the Nomads: A History of Ancient Australia'' (1975). Robert Hughes' much-debated history '' The Fatal Shore: The epic of Australia's founding'' (1987) is a popular and influential work on early Australian history.

is one of the principal contemporary

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

academics and her 2008 collaboration with

Rachel Perkins Rachel Perkins (born 1970) is an Indigenous Australian film and television director, producer, and screenwriter. She founded and was co-director of the independent film production company Blackfella Films from 1992 until 2022. Perkins and the ...

chronicles Australian history from an Indigenous perspective: '' First Australians. An Illustrated History''.

Writing and identity

A complicated, multi-faceted relationship to Australia is displayed in much Australian writing, often through writing about landscape.

Barbara Baynton Barbara Janet Baynton (née Lawrence; 4 June 1857 – 28 May 1929) was an Australian writer known primarily for her short stories about life in the bush. She published the collection '' Bush Studies'' (1902) and the novel ''Human Toll'' (1907), ...

's short stories from the late 19th century/early 20th century convey people living in the bush, a landscape that is alive but also threatening and alienating. Kenneth Cook's ''Wake in Fright'' (1961) portrayed the outback as a nightmare with a blazing sun, from which there is no escape. Colin Thiele's novels reflected the life and times of rural and regional Australians in the 20th century, showing aspects of Australian life unknown to many city dwellers. In Australian literature, the term ''

'' has often been employed to denote an intensely loyal relationship of shared experience, mutual respect and unconditional assistance existing between friends (''mates'') in Australia. This relationship of (often male) loyalty has remained a central subject of Australian literature from colonial times to the present day. In 1847, Alexander Harris wrote of habits of mutual helpfulness between mates arising in the "otherwise solitary bush" in which men would often "stand by one another through thick and thin; in fact it is a universal feeling that a man ought to be able to trust his own mate in anything".

, a son of the Goldfields wrote extensively of an egalitarian mateship, in such works as ''A Sketch of Mateship'' and ''Shearers'', in which he wrote: :They tramp in mateship side by side - :The Protestant and Roman :They call no biped lord or sir :And touch their hat to no man. What it means to be Australian is another issue that Australian literature explores.

struggled to find a place for herself as a female writer in Australia, fictionalising this experience in '' My Brilliant Career'' (1901). Marie Bjelke Petersen's popular romance novels, published between 1917 and 1937, offered a fresh upbeat interpretation of the Australian bush. The central character in

's '' The Twyborn Affair'' tries to conform to expectations of pre–World War II Australian masculinity but cannot, and instead, post-war, tries out another identity—and gender—overseas. Peter Carey has toyed with the idea of a national Australian identity as a series of 'beautiful lies', and this is a recurrent theme in his novels. Andrew McGahan's ''Praise'' (1992),

's '' Loaded'' (1995), Justine Ettler's ''The River Ophelia'' (1995) and

Brendan Cowell Brendan Cowell is an Australian actor and writer. He is known for his lead role in 2024 television series ''Plum'' that he created, based on his 2021 novel of the same name. Early life and education Brendan Cowell was born in Sydney and grew u ...

's ''How It Feels'' (2010) introduced a

, a type of 'gritty realism' take on questions of Australian identity in the 1990s, though an important precursor to such work came some years earlier with

's '' Monkey Grip'' (1977), about a single mother living on and off with a male heroin addict in Melbourne share housing. Australian literature has had several scandals surrounding the identity of writers. In the 1930s, a misunderstanding with a printer caused Maude Hepplestone's bush poetry collection "Songs of the Kookaburra" to be mistakenly lauded internationally as a modernist masterpiece. The 1944

Ern Malley The Ern Malley hoax, also called the Ern Malley affair, is Australia's most famous literary hoax. Its name derives from Ernest Lalor "Ern" Malley, a fictitious poet whose biography and body of work were created in one day in 1943 by conservati ...

affair led to an obscenity trial and is often blamed for the lack of

modernist poetry Modernist poetry refers to poetry written between 1890 and 1950 in the tradition of modernist literature, but the dates of the term depend upon a number of factors, including the nation of origin, the particular school in quest of the critic setti ...

in Australia. To mark the 60th anniversary of the Ern Malley affair, another Australian writer, Leon Carmen, set out to make a point about the prejudice of Australian publishers against white Australians. Unable to find publication as a white Australian he was an instant success using the false Aboriginal identity of "Wanda Koolmatrie" with ''My Own Sweet Time''. In the 1980s Streten Bozik also managed to become published by assuming the Aboriginal identity of B. Wongar. In the 1990s,

Helen Darville Helen Dale (born Helen Darville; 1972) is an Australian writer and lawyer. She is best known for writing '' The Hand that Signed the Paper'', a novel about a Ukrainian family who collaborated with the Nazis in the Holocaust, under the pseudony ...

used the pen-name "Helen Demidenko" and won major literary prizes for her ''Hand that Signed the Paper'' before being discovered, sparking a controversy over the content of her novel, a fictionalised and highly tendentious account of the Nazi occupation of Ukraine.

Mudrooroo Colin Thomas Johnson (21 August 1938 – 2019), better known by his nom de plume Mudrooroo, and also published under the names Mudrooroo Narogin and Mudrooroo Nyoongah, was an Australian novelist, poet, essayist and playwright. He is best known ...

—previously known as Colin Johnson—was acclaimed as an Aboriginal writer until his Aboriginality came under question (his mother was Irish/English and his father was Irish/African-American, however he has strong connections with Aboriginal tribes); he now avoids adopting a specific ethnic identity and his works deconstruct such notions.

Poetry

Poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

played an important part in early Australian literature. The first poet to be published in Australia was Michael Massey Robinson (1744–1826), convict and public servant, whose

ode An ode (from ) is a type of lyric poetry, with its origins in Ancient Greece. Odes are elaborately structured poems praising or glorifying an event or individual, describing nature intellectually as well as emotionally. A classic ode is structu ...

s appeared in ''The Sydney Gazette''. The first book of verse by a native-born Australian poet, ''Australasia'', was published by explorer and author William Charles Wentworth in 1823, espousing his ideals of Australian identity. Charles Harpur and Henry Kendall were the first poets of any consequence.

, son of a Norwegian sailor born in 1867, was widely recognised as Australia's poet of the people and, in 1922, became the first Australian writer to be honoured with a state funeral. Two poets who are amongst the great Australian poets are

Christopher Brennan Christopher John Brennan (1 November 1870 – 5 October 1932) was an Australian poet, scholar and literary critic. Biography Brennan was born in Haymarket, an inner suburb of Sydney, to Christopher Brennan (d. 1919), a brewer, and his wife ...

and

Adam Lindsay Gordon Adam Lindsay Gordon (19 October 1833 – 24 June 1870) was a British-Australian poet, horseman, police officer and politician. He was the first Australian poet to gain considerable recognition overseas, and according to his contemporary, write ...

; Gordon was once referred to as the "

national poet A national poet or national bard is a poet held by tradition and popular acclaim to represent the identity, beliefs and principles of a particular national culture. The national poet as culture hero is a long-standing symbol, to be distinguished ...

of Australia" and is the only Australian with a monument in

Poets' Corner Poets' Corner is a section of the southern transept of Westminster Abbey in London, England, where many poets, playwrights, and writers are buried or commemorated. The first poet interred in Poets' Corner was Geoffrey Chaucer in 1400. Willia ...

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...

in England. Both Gordon's and Brennan's (but particularly Brennan's) works conformed to traditional styles of poetry, with many classical allusions, and therefore fell within the domain of high culture. However, at the same time Australia had a competing, vibrant tradition of

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

s and

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

and

were two of the chief exponents of these popular ballads, and 'Banjo' himself was responsible for creating what is probably the most famous Australian verse, "

Waltzing Matilda "Waltzing Matilda" is a song developed in the Australian style of poetry and folk music called a bush ballad. It has been described as the country's "unofficial national anthem". The title was Australian slang for travelling on foot (waltzing ...

". At one point, Lawson and Paterson contributed a series of verses to '' The Bulletin'' magazine in which they engaged in a literary debate about the nature of life in Australia. Lawson said Paterson was a romantic and Paterson said Lawson was full of doom and gloom. Lawson is widely regarded as one of Australia's greatest writers of short stories, while Paterson's poems " The Man From Snowy River" and "

Clancy of the Overflow "Clancy of the Overflow" is a famous Australian poem written by Banjo Paterson and first published in '' The Bulletin'', an Australian news magazine, on 21 December 1889. The poem is typical of Paterson, offering a romantic view of rural life, ...

" remain amongst the most popular Australian bush poems. Romanticised views of the outback and the rugged characters that inhabited it played an important part in shaping the Australian nation's psyche, just as the

cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the ''vaquero'' ...

s of the

American Old West The American frontier, also known as the Old West, and popularly known as the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that bega ...

and the

gaucho A gaucho () or gaúcho () is a skilled horseman, reputed to be brave and unruly. The figure of the gaucho is a folk symbol of Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, the southern part of Bolivia, and the south of Chilean Patago ...

s of the Argentine

pampa The Pampas (; from Quechuan languages, Quechua 'plain'), also known as the Pampas Plain, are fertile South American low grasslands that cover more than and include the Argentina, Argentine Provinces of Argentina, provinces of Buenos Aires Pro ...

became part of the self-image of those nations. Banjo Patterson

Other poets who reflected a sense of Australian identity include C J Dennis and Dorothea McKellar. Dennis wrote in the Australian vernacular ("

The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke ''The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke'' is a verse novel by Australian poet and journalist C. J. Dennis. Portions of the work appeared in ''The Bulletin (Australian periodical), The Bulletin'' between 1909 and 1915, the year the verse novel was comp ...

"), while McKellar wrote the iconic patriotic poem " My Country". Prominent Australian poets of the 20th century include Dame

Gwen Harwood Gwen Harwood (née Gwendoline Nessie Foster, 8 June 19205 December 1995) was an Australian poet and librettist. Harwood is regarded as one of Australia's finest poets, publishing over 420 works, including 386 poems and 13 librettos. She won num ...

, Les Murray, Bruce Dawe and more recently Robert Gray, John Forbes,

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 ...

, John Kinsella,

Richard James Allen Richard James Allen (born 1960) is a contemporary Australian poet, dancer, actor and filmmaker. The former artistic director of the Poets Union Inc, and founding director of the Australian Poetry Festival, Allen was co-artistic director with Kar ...

, and

Judith Beveridge Judith Beveridge (born 1956) is a contemporary Australian poet, editor and academic. She is a recipient of the Christopher Brennan Award. Biography Judith Beveridge was born in London, England, arriving in Australia with her parents in 1960. S ...

Contemporary Australian poetry is mostly published by small, independent book publishers. However, other kinds of publication, including new media and online journals, spoken word and live events, and public poetry projects are gaining an increasingly vibrant and popular presence. 1992–1999 saw poetry and art collaborations in Sydney and Newcastle buses and ferries, including Artransit from

Meuse Press ''Meuse Press'' s an Australian Press, publishing a range of "poetry outreach" projects in a number of media ranging from a literary magazine to poetry published on the surface of a river. It was founded by Bill Farrow and Les Wicks. It is mostly ...

. Some of the more interesting and innovative contributions to Australian poetry have emerged from artist-run galleries in recent years, such as Textbase which had its beginnings as part of the 1st Floor gallery in Fitzroy. In addition, Red Room Company is a major exponent of innovative projects. Bankstown Poetry Slam has become a notable venue for spoken-word poetry and for community intersection with poetry as an art form to be shared. With its roots in Western Sydney it has a strong following from first and second generation Australians, often giving a platform to voices that are more marginalised in mainstream Australian society. Lesmurray

The Australian Poetry Library was an online resource that contained a wide range of Australian poetry as well as critical and contextual material relating to it, such as interviews, photographs and audio/visual recordings. Begun in 2004 by leading Australian poet

, it was a joint initiative of the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

and the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) with funding by the

Australian Research Council The Australian Research Council (ARC) is the primary non-medical research funding agency of the Australian Government, distributing more than in grants each year. The Council was established by the ''Australian Research Council Act 2001'', ...

. By 2018 it contained over 42,000 poems, from more than 170 Australian poets. , the Australian Poetry Library is "currently unavailable".

Plays

European traditions came to Australia with the

in 1788, with the first production being performed in 1789 by convicts : ''

The Recruiting Officer ''The Recruiting Officer'' is a 1706 play by the Irish writer George Farquhar, which follows the social and sexual exploits of two English Army officers, the womanising Plume and the cowardly Brazen, in the town of Shrewsbury (the town where ...

'' by

George Farquhar George Farquhar (1677The explanation for the dual birth year appears in Louis A. Strauss, ed., A Discourse Upon Comedy, The Recruiting Officer, and The Beaux' Stratagem by George Farquhar' (Boston: D.C. Heath & Co., 1914), p. v. Strauss notes t ...

.The Recruiting Officer & Our Country's Good – Stantonbury Campus Theatre Company, 2000
/ref> Two centuries later, the extraordinary circumstances of the foundations of Australian theatre were recounted in ''

Our Country's Good ''Our Country's Good'' is a 1988 play written by British playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker, adapted from the Thomas Keneally novel '' The Playmaker''. The story concerns a group of Royal Marines and convicts in a penal colony in New South Wales ...

'' by

Timberlake Wertenbaker Timberlake Wertenbaker is a British-based playwright, screenplay writer, and translator who has written plays for the Royal Court, the Royal Shakespeare Company and others. She has been described in ''The Washington Post'' as "the doyenne of po ...

: the participants were prisoners watched by sadistic guards and the leading lady was under threat of the death penalty. The play is based on

's novel ''

The Playmaker Playmaker is a designation assigned to some association football midfielders and forwards. Playmaker or playmakers may also refer to: In sports * * Playmaker (basketball), an alternate term for the point guard position in basketball or handball * ...

''. After

Australian Federation The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia (which also governed what is now the Northern Territory), and Wester ...

in 1901, plays evidenced a new sense of national identity. ''On Our Selection'' (1912) by

, told of the adventures of a pioneer farming family and became immensely popular. In 1955, ''

Summer of the Seventeenth Doll ''Summer of the Seventeenth Doll'' is an Australian play written by Ray Lawler and first performed at the Union Theatre in Melbourne on 28 November 1955. The play is considered to be the most significant in Australian theatre history, and a " ...

'' by

portrayed resolutely Australian characters and went on to international acclaim. A new wave of Australian theatre debuted in the 1970s with the works of writers including

Barry Oakley Barry Kingham Oakley (born 24 February 1931)''Who's Who in Australia'' (2010) is an Australian writer.Luke Slattery"10 questions: Barry Oakley, author, 81"''The Australian'', 15 December 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2016.- Graeme Blundell"Wittily i ...

and

Jack Hibberd John Charles Hibberd (12 April 1940 – 30 August 2024) was an Australian playwright best known for his plays '' Dimboola'' (1969) and '' A Stretch of the Imagination'' (1972). He was also a physician. Biography John Charles Hibberd was bor ...

. The

Belvoir St Theatre Belvoir is an Australian theatre company based at the Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney, Australia, originally known as Company B. Its artistic director is Eamon Flack. The theatre comprises two performing spaces: the Upstairs Theatre and the small ...

presented works by

and

. Williamson is Australia's best known playwright, with major works including: '' The Club,

Emerald City The Emerald City (sometimes called the City of Emeralds) is the capital city of the fictional Land of Oz in L. Frank Baum's ''Oz'' books, first described in '' The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' (1900). Fictional description Located in the center of ...

'', and '' Brilliant Lies''. In ''The One Day of the Year'', Alan Seymour studied the paradoxical nature of the

ANZAC Day Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia, New Zealand and Tonga that broadly commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders "who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations" and "the contribution and ...

commemoration by Australians of the defeat of the Battle of Gallipoli. ''Ngapartji Ngapartji'', by Scott Rankin and Trevor Jamieson, recounts the story of the effects on the

Pitjantjatjara people The Pitjantjatjara (; or ) are an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert near Uluru. They are closely related to the Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra and their languages are, to a large extent, mutually intelligible (all are v ...

of nuclear testing in the Western Desert during the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

. It is an example of the contemporary fusion of traditions of drama in Australia with Pitjantjatjara actors being supported by a multicultural cast of Greek, Afghan, Japanese and New Zealand heritage. Eminent contemporary Australian playwrights include

, Alan Seymour, Stephen Sewell, the late

and Justin Fleming. The Australian government supports a website (australianplays.or
The Home of Australian Playscripts , AustralianPlays.org
that aims to combine playwright biographies and script information. Scripts are also available there.

Science fiction and fantasy

Australia, unlike Europe, does not have a long history in the genre of science fiction. Nevil Shute's '' On the Beach'', published in 1957, and filmed in 1959, was perhaps the first notable international success. Though not born in Australia, Shute spent his latter years there, and the book was set in Australia. It might have been worse had the imports of American pulp magazines not been restricted during WWII, forcing local writers into the field. Various compilation magazines began appearing in the 1960s and the field has continued to expand into some significance. Today Australia has a thriving SF/Fantasy genre with names recognised around the world. In 2013 a trilogy by Sydney-born Ben Peek was sold at auction to a UK publisher for a six-figure deal .

Crime

The

crime fiction Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, crime novel, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives or fiction that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professiona ...

genre is currently thriving in Australia, most notably through books written by

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 ...

Shane Maloney Shane Maloney (born 1953) born in Hamilton, Victoria is a Melbourne author best known as the creator of the Murray Whelan series of crime novels. Life and career Maloney was educated at Christian Brothers' College, St Kilda (CBC St Kilda). He st ...

, Peter Temple, Barry Maitland,

Arthur Upfield Arthur William Upfield (1 September 1890 – 12 February 1964) was an English-Australian writer, best known for his works of detective fiction featuring Detective Inspector Napoleon "Bony" Bonaparte of the Queensland Police Force, a mixed-race ...

and

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 ...

, among others. High-profile, highly publicised court cases and murders have seen a significant amount of non-fiction crime literature, perhaps the most recognisable writer in this field being

. Garner's published accounts of three court cases: ''

The First Stone ''The First Stone: Some questions about sex and power'' is a controversial non-fiction book by Helen Garner about a 1992 sexual harassment scandal at Ormond College, one of the residential colleges of the University of Melbourne, which the auth ...

'', about a sexual harassment scandal at the University of Melbourne, '' Joe Cinque's Consolation'', about a young man murdered by his girlfriend in Canberra, and ''

This House of Grief ''This House of Grief'' is a 2014 non-fiction book by Helen Garner. Subtitled "The story of a murder trial", its subject matter is the murder conviction of a man accused of driving his car into a dam resulting in the deaths of his three children ...

'', about Victorian child-killer

Robert Farquharson Robert Donald William Farquharson (born 1969) is an Australian man convicted of murdering his three sons on 4 September 2005, by deliberately driving his car into a farm dam. Farquharson was convicted in an earlier trial and was sentenced to ...

. Each of Garner's works incorporates the style reminiscent of a fictional narrative novel, a stylistic device known as the

non-fiction novel The non-fiction novel is a literary genre that, broadly speaking, depicts non-fictional elements, such as real historical figures and actual events, woven together with fictitious conversations and uses the storytelling techniques of fiction. The ...

Chloe Hooper Chloe Melisande Hooper (born 1973) is an Australian author. Her first novel, '' A Child's Book of True Crime'' (2002), was short-listed for the Orange Prize for Literature and was a ''New York Times'' Notable Book. In 2005, she turned to repo ...

published '' The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island'' in 2008 as a response to the death of an Aboriginal man, Cameron Doomadgee, in police custody in

Palm Island, Queensland Palm Island is a Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality consisting of an island group of 16 islands, split between the Shire of Hinchinbrook and the Aboriginal Shire of Palm Island, in Queensland, Australia. The locality coincides with th ...

Literary journals

The first periodical that could be called a literary journal in Australia was ''The Australian Magazine'' (June 1821 - May 1822).Lurline Stuart (1979), ''Nineteenth century Australian periodicals: an annotated bibliography'', Sydney, Hale & Iremonger, p.2 & 35. It featured poetry, a two-part story and articles on theology and general topics. Most of the others that followed in the 19th century were based in either Sydney or Melbourne. Few lasted long due to difficulties that included a lack of capital, the small local market and competition from literary journals from Britain. Most recent Australian literary journals have originated from universities, and specifically English or Communications departments. They include: * ''

Meanjin ''Meanjin'' (), formerly ''Meanjin Papers'' and ''Meanjin Quarterly'', is one of Australia's longest-running literary magazines. Established in 1940 in Brisbane, it moved to Melbourne in 1945 and as of 2008 is an editorially independent impri ...

'' * '' Overland'' * ''

HEAT In thermodynamics, heat is energy in transfer between a thermodynamic system and its surroundings by such mechanisms as thermal conduction, electromagnetic radiation, and friction, which are microscopic in nature, involving sub-atomic, ato ...

'' * '' Southerly'' * '' Westerly'' Other journals include: * ''

Quadrant Quadrant may refer to: Companies * Quadrant Cycle Company, 1899 manufacturers in Britain of the Quadrant motorcar * Quadrant (motorcycles), one of the earliest British motorcycle manufacturers, established in Birmingham in 1901 * Quadrant Privat ...

'' * ''

Australian Book Review ''Australian Book Review'' is an Australian arts and literary review. Created in 1961, ''ABR'' is an independent non-profit organisation that publishes articles, reviews, commentaries, essays, and new writing. The aims of the magazine are " ...

'' * ''

Island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

'' * '' Voiceworks'' * '' Wet Ink'' (now closed) * '' The Lifted Brow'' * '' Red Leaves / 紅葉'' * '' Kill Your Darlings'' A number of newspapers also carry literary review supplements: * ''

Australian Literary Review The ''Australian Literary Review'' (ALR) was a monthly supplement to ''The Australian'' newspaper established in September 2006 and published on the first Wednesday of each month. The headquarters was in Surry Hills, New South Wales. It was co ...

Awards

Current literary awards in Australia include: *

Anne Elder Award The Anne Elder Trust Fund Award for poetry was administered by the Victorian branch of the Fellowship of Australian Writers from its establishment in 1976 until 2017. From 2018 the award has been administered by Australian Poetry. It is awarded an ...

The Australian/Vogel Literary Award ''The Australian''/Vogel Literary Award was an Australian literary award for unpublished manuscripts by writers under the age of 35. The prize money AUD$20,000, was the richest and most prestigious award for an unpublished manuscript in Austra ...

Ditmar Award The Ditmar Award (formally the Australian SF ("Ditmar") Award; formerly the "Australian Science Fiction Achievement Award") has been awarded annually since 1969 at the Australian National Science Fiction Convention (the "Natcon") to recognise ...

Science Fiction (includes Fantasy & Horror) *

Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry The Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry is awarded annually as part of the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards for a book of collected poems or for a single poem of substantial length published in book form.Mary Gilmore Prize __NOTOC__ The Mary Gilmore Award is currently an annual Australian literary award for poetry, awarded by the Association for the Study of Australian Literature. Since being established in 1956 as the ACTU Dame Mary Gilmore Award, it has been awar ...

for a first book of poetry *

New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards The New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, also known as the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, were first awarded in 1979. They are among the richest literary awards in Australia. Notable prizes include the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, th ...

Patrick White Award The Patrick White Award is an annual literary prize established by Patrick White. White used his 1973 Nobel Prize in Literature award to establish a trust for this prize. The $25,000 cash award is given to a writer who has been highly creative o ...

* Peter Blazey Fellowship *

Prime Minister's Literary Awards The Australian Prime Minister's Literary Awards (PMLA) were announced at the end of 2007 by the incoming First Rudd ministry following the 2007 election. They are administered by the Minister for the Arts.Queensland Premier's Literary Awards The Queensland Premier's Literary Awards were an Australian suite of literary awards inaugurated in 1999 and disestablished in 2012. It was one of the most generous suites of literary awards within Australia, with $225,000 in prize money across ...

Victorian Premier's Literary Award The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards were created by the Victorian Government with the aim of raising the profile of contemporary creative writing and Australia's publishing industry. As of 2013, it is reportedly Australia's richest literary ...

Western Australian Premier's Book Awards The Western Australian Premier's Book Awards is an annual book award provided by the Government of Western Australia, and managed by the State Library of Western Australia. History and format Annual literary awards were inaugurated by the Wes ...

Australian authors are also eligible for a number of other literary awards, such as the: *

Commonwealth Writers' Prize Commonwealth Foundation has presented a number of prizes since 1987. The main award was called the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was composed of two prizes: the Best Book Prize (overall and regional) was awarded from 1987 to 2011; the Best First ...

Women's Prize for Fiction The Women's Prize for Fiction (previously with sponsor names Orange Prize for Fiction (1996–2006 and 2009–2012), Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction (2007–08) and Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction (2014–2017) is one of the United Kingdom's ...

References

External links

* Th
Library of Australiana
page a
Project Gutenberg of Australia

Bibliography of Australian Literature to 1954
a
Freeread

"AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource" (2000-)

List of Australian Writers in English
{{Authority control Australian literature, English-language literature

Overview

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers and themes

Early and classic works

Children's literature

Expatriate authors

Other contemporary works and authors

1991–1996: Grunge lit

1998–2010s: Post-grunge lit

Australian writing in languages other than English

Histories

Writing and identity

Poetry

Plays

Science fiction and fantasy

Crime

Literary journals

Awards

Further reading

Books

Articles

See also

References

External links