Australian literature is the written or literary work produced in the area or by the people of the Commonwealth of Australia and its preceding colonies. During its early Western 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 United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

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

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 a British-born Australian writer who published 12 novels, three short-story collections, and eight plays, from 1935 to 1987. White's fiction employs humour, florid prose, ...

, as well as authors Christina Stead, David Malouf, Peter Carey, Bradley Trevor Greive, Thomas Keneally, Colleen McCullough, Nevil Shute and Morris West. Notable contemporary expatriate authors include the feminist Germaine Greer, art historian Robert Hughes and humorists Barry Humphries 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, Banjo Paterson, C. J. Dennis and Dorothea Mackellar. Dennis wrote in the Australian vernacular, while Mackellar wrote the iconic patriotic poem'' My Country''. Lawson and Paterson clashed in the famous " Bulletin Debate" 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, Kenneth Slessor,

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-centur ...

and Judith Wright. 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 ('' For the Term of His Natural Life''), Miles Franklin ('' My Brilliant Career''), Henry Handel Richardson (''

The Fortunes of Richard Mahony ''The Fortunes of Richard Mahony'' is a three-part novel by Australian writer Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson under her pen name, Henry Handel Richardson. It consists of ''Australia Felix'' (1917), ''The Way Home'' (1925), and ''Ultima Thule'' ...

''), Joseph Furphy (''

Such Is Life Such Is Life may refer to: Film * ''Such Is Life'' (1915 film), an American silent film starring Lon Chaney, Sr. * ''Such Is Life'' (1924 film), an American silent short film starring Baby Peggy Diana Serra Cary (born Peggy-Jean Montgomery; O ...

''), Rolf Boldrewood ('' Robbery Under Arms'') and Ruth Park ('' The Harp in the South''). In terms of children's literature, Norman Lindsay ('' The Magic Pudding''), Mem Fox ('' Possum Magic''), and May Gibbs ('' Snugglepot and Cuddlepie'') are among the Australian classics, while Melina Marchetta ('' Looking for Alibrandi'') is a modern YA classic. Eminent Australian playwrights have included Ray Lawler, David Williamson, Alan Seymour and Nick Enright. Among prominent short story writers are Steele Rudd, Henry Lawson,

Beverley Farmer Beverley Anne Farmer (also known as B. Christou) (7 February 1941 – 16 April 2018) was an Australian novelist and short story writer. Personal life Beverley Farmer was born in Melbourne. She was educated at Mac.Robertson Girls' High School and ...

, Kate Grenville, and

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

. 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 the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a n ...

, in the drovers and squatters and people of the barren, dusty plains. David Unaipon is known as the first Aboriginal author. Oodgeroo Noonuccal was the first Aboriginal Australian to publish a book of verse. A ground-breaking memoir about the experiences of the Stolen Generations can be found in Sally Morgan's '' My Place''. Charles Bean, Geoffrey Blainey, Robert Hughes, Manning Clark, Claire Wright, and Marcia Langton 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, David Unaipon (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. Oodgeroo Noonuccal (1920–1993) was a famous Aboriginal poet, writer and rights activist credited with publishing the first Aboriginal book of verse: ''

We Are Going ''We Are Going'' (1964) is a collection of poems by Australian writer Oodgeroo Noonuccal. It was published by Jacaranda Press in 1964. The collection includes 29 poems by the author, from a variety of original sources. This is the first colle ...

'' (1964). Sally Morgan's novel '' My Place'' was considered a breakthrough memoir in terms of bringing indigenous stories to wider notice. Leading Aboriginal activists Marcia Langton (

First Australians ''First Australians'' is an Australian historical documentary series produced by Blackfella Films over the course of six years, and first aired on SBS TV in October 2008. The documentary is part of a greater project that further consists of ...

, 2008) and Noel Pearson ('' Up from the Mission'', 2009) are active contemporary contributors to Australian literature. The voices of Indigenous Australians are being increasingly noticed and include the

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

Jack Davis and Kevin Gilbert. Writers coming to prominence in the 21st century include Kim Scott, Alexis Wright, Kate Howarth, Tara June Winch, Yvette Holt and Anita Heiss. 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 of Miles Franklin (1879–195 ...

include Kim Scott who was joint winner (with Thea Astley) in 2000 for ''

Benang ''Benang: From the Heart'' is a 1999 Miles Franklin Award-winning novel by Australian author Kim Scott. The award was shared with ''Drylands'' by Thea Astley. Context of Novel One of the main contexts in the novel deals with the process of " ...

'' 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, t ...

.'' Alexis Wright won the award in 2007 for her novel ''

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

.''

Melissa Lucashenko Melissa Lucashenko is an Indigenous Australian writer of adult literary fiction and literary non-fiction, who has also written novels for teenagers. In 2013 at The Walkley Awards, she won the "Feature Writing Long (over 4000 words) Award" for ...

won the award in 2019 for her novel ''

Too Much Lip ''Too Much Lip'' (2018) is a novel by Australian author Melissa Lucashenko. It was shortlisted for the 2019 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Indigenous Writing and the Stella Award. It was the winner of the 2019 Miles Franklin Award. Plo ...

'', 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 Baileys W ...

for Australian women's writing. Letters written by notable Aboriginal leaders like Bennelong and Sir Douglas Nicholls 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.

AustLit AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource (also known as AustLit: Australian Literature Gateway; and AustLit: The Resource for Australian Literature), usually referred to simply as AustLit, is an internet-based, non-profit collaboration betwee ...

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

James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...

and

First Fleet The First Fleet was a fleet of 11 ships that brought the first European and African settlers to Australia. It was made up of two Royal Navy vessels, three store ships and six convict transports. On 13 May 1787 the fleet under the command ...

marine Watkin Tench (the era of Jean-Jacques Rousseau), 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 Judith Wright; '' The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith'' by Thomas Keneally, ''Ilbarana'' by Donald Stuart, and the short story by David Malouf: "The Only Speaker of his Tongue". Histories covering Indigenous themes include Watkin Tench (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 Thompson on the subject of the Yolngu people of

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

(c.1935-1943); Alan Moorehead (''The fatal Impact'', 1966); Geoffrey Blainey (''Triumph of the Nomads'', 1975); Henry Reynolds (''

The Other Side of the Frontier ''The Other Side of the Frontier'' is a history book published in 1981 by Australian historian Henry Reynolds. It is a study of Aboriginal Australian resistance to the British settlement, or invasion, of Australia from 1788 onwards. The book ...

'', 1981); and Marcia Langton (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 Melbo ...

and Keith Windschuttle.

Early and classic works

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

Gulliver's Travels ''Gulliver's Travels'', or ''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 clergyman Jonathan ...

to the west of Tasmania. In 1797 the British

Romantic Romantic may refer to: Genres and eras * The Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries ** Romantic music, of that era ** Romantic poetry, of that era ** Romanticism in science, of that e ...

poet Robert Southey—then a young

Jacobin , logo = JacobinVignette03.jpg , logo_size = 180px , logo_caption = Seal of the Jacobin Club (1792–1794) , motto = "Live free or die"(french: Vivre libre ou mourir) , successor = Pa ...

—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. Among the first true works of literature produced in Australia were the accounts of the settlement of Sydney by Watkin Tench, a captain of the marines on the

to arrive in 1788. In 1819, poet, explorer, journalist and politician William Wentworth 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 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 its literary merit.''Q ...

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 the political and geographical area near or beyond a boundary. A frontier can also be referred to as a "front". The term came from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"—the region of a country that fronts o ...

of the Australian

. Writers such as Rolf Boldrewood ('' Robbery Under Arms''), Marcus Clarke ('' For the Term of His Natural Life''), Henry Handel Richardson (''

'') and Joseph Furphy (''

'') embodied these stirring ideals in their tales and, particularly the latter, tried to accurately record the vernacular language of the common Australian. These novelists also gave valuable insights into the

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

which helped form the country and also the early rural settlements. In 1838 ''The Guardian: a tale'' by

Anna Maria Bunn Anna Maria Bunn (1808–1889) was the anonymous author of ''The Guardian: a Tale (by an Australian)'' (1838), the first novel published on mainland Australia and the first in the continent by a woman. Bunn's authorship was only established after an ...

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 Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

romance. Miles Franklin ('' My Brilliant Career'') and Jeannie Gunn (''

We of the Never Never ''We of the Never Never'' is an autobiographical novel by Jeannie Gunn first published in 1908. Although published as a novel, it is an account of the author's experiences in 1902 at Elsey Station near Mataranka, Northern Territory in which she ...

'') wrote of lives of European pioneers in the Australian bush from a female perspective.

Albert Facey Albert Barnett Facey (31 August 1894 – 11 February 1982), publishing as A.B. Facey was an Australian writer and World War I veteran, whose main work was his autobiography, '' A Fortunate Life'', now considered a classic of Australian litera ...

wrote of the experiences of the Goldfields and of

Gallipoli The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles ...

('' A Fortunate Life''). Ruth Park wrote of the sectarian divisions of life in impoverished 1940s inner city Sydney ('' The Harp in the South''). The experience of Australian PoWs in the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...

is recounted by Nevil Shute in '' A Town Like Alice'' and in the autobiography of Sir Edward Dunlop. Alan Moorehead 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's '' Kangaroo''. The journals of Charles Darwin 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. ''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'' 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's ''Careful, He Might Hear You'' as key examples.

Children's literature

Ethel Turner Ethel Turner (24 January 1870 – 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 J ...

's '' Seven Little Australians'', 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. Plot introduction Henry Handel Richardson was the pseudonym of Ethel Florenc ...

'' (1910) by Henry Handel Richardson, about an unconventional schoolgirl in Melbourne, has enjoyed a similar success and been praised by H. G. Wells and Germaine Greer. 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'',

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 E ...

's '' Dot and the Kangaroo'', May Gibbs' '' Snugglepot and Cuddlepie'', Norman Lindsay's '' The Magic Pudding'', Ruth Park's ''

The Muddleheaded Wombat The Muddle-Headed Wombat is a fictional wombat featured in the radio serials and later in the children's books of the same name written by Australian author Ruth Park. The books are considered classics of Australian children's literature. History ...

'' and Mem Fox'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 Australian bush, 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 any members of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia. All extant marsupials are endemic to Australasia, Wallacea and the Americas. A distinctive characteristic common to most of these species is that the young are carried in a po ...

. May Gibbs crafted a story of protagonists modelled on the appearance of young eucalyptus ( 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 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 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 Hesba Fay Brinsmead (''Hesba Fay Hungerford''; 15 March 1922 in Berambing, New South Wales – 24 November 2003 in Murwillumbah) was an Australian author of children's books and an environmentalist. Biography Upbringing Brinsmead's parent ...

Ivan Southall Ivan Francis Southall AM, DFC (8 June 192115 November 2008) was an Australian writer best known for young adult fiction. He wrote more than 30 children's books, six books for adults, and at least ten works of history, biography or other non-fi ...

, Colin Thiele,

Patricia Wrightson Patricia Wrightson OBE (19 June 1921 – 15 March 2010) was an Australian writer of several highly regarded and influential children's books. Employing a 'magic realism' style, her books, including the award-winning ''The Nargun and the Stars' ...

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 Joan Margaret Phipson AM (1912–2003) was an Australian children's writer. She lived on a farm in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales and many of her books evoke the stress and satisfaction of living in the Australian countryside, flood ...

and

Eleanor Spence Eleanor Spence (1928–2008) was an Australian author of novels for young adults and older children. Her books explore a wide range of issues, including Australian history, religion, autism, bigotry, materialism and alienation. She was appoin ...

, 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 The Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) is a not for profit organisation which aims to engage the community with literature for young Australians. The CBCA presents the annual Children's Book of the Year Awards to books of literary merit ...

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 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 cordillera system ...

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'' (1980) by Ruth Park; and, for older children and mature readers, Melina Marchetta'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 Ffrench (born 29 November 1953), known professionally as Jackie French, is an Australian author who has written across a number of genres for both adults and children. Her most notable works include '' Rain Stones, Diary of a ...

, 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 ''Hitler's Daughter'' is a children's novel by Australian children's author Jackie French. It was first published in 1999, and is one of French's most critically acclaimed books. Synopsis While waiting for their school bus, a group of children ...

'' (1999), is a "what if?" story that explores mind-provoking issues about what would have happened if Adolf Hitler 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 and 2004 BILBY Award, 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''. The world's richest prize in children's literature has been received by two Australians, Sonya Hartnett, who won the 2008 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award and Shaun Tan, 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 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'' also won him an Oscar for best animated short film. Other awards Tan has won include a World Fantasy Award for Best Artist, 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 and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier a ...

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:

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.Robert Hughes, Barry Humphries, Geoffrey Robertson and Germaine Greer. 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 as 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'' (1987)). Barry Humphries took his dadaist 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 performed by Australian comedian Barry Humphries, known for her lilac-coloured ("wisteria hue") hair and cat eye glasses ("face furniture"); her favourite flower, th ...

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 (but suggested by Peter Cook) for a comic st ...

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. 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'', 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 (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 (novel), Outbreak of Love'' a ...

'' (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 Sin ...

'' (1955), ''

Outbreak of Love ''Outbreak of Love'' is a 1981 Australian miniseries about Melbourne society just before World War I. *Ed. Scott Murray, ''Australia on the Small Screen 1970-1995'', Oxford Uni Press, 1996 p. 220 * * References External links''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 ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...

in 1973 "for an epic and psychological narrative art which has introduced a new continent into literature". White's first novel, '' Happy Valley'' (1939) was inspired by the landscape and his work as a

jackaroo A jackaroo is a young man (feminine equivalent jillaroo) working on a sheep or cattle station, to gain practical experience in the skills needed to become an owner, overseer, manager, etc. The word originated in Queensland, Australia, in the ...

on the land at Adaminaby 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 ''The Tree of Man'' is the fourth published novel by the Australian novelist and 1973 Nobel Prize-winner, Patrick White. It is a domestic drama chronicling the lives of the Parker family and their changing fortunes over many decades. It is ste ...

'' with '' Voss'', which became the first winner of the

. A subsequent novel, '' Riders in the Chariot'' 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, 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. Colleen McCullough'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 1 ...

'', 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. Thomas Keneally wrote '' The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith'', 1972 and ''

Schindler's Ark ''Schindler's Ark'' is a historical novel published in 1982 by the Australian novelist Thomas Keneally. The United States edition of the book was titled ''Schindler's List;'' it was later reissued in Commonwealth countries under that name as we ...

'', 1982. This latter work was the inspiration for the film '' Schindler's List''. Other notable Australian novels converted to celluloid include: Paul Brickhill's '' The Great Escape'';

Pamela Lyndon Travers Pamela Lyndon Travers (; born Helen Lyndon Goff; 9 August 1899 – 23 April 1996) was an Australian-British writer who spent most of her career in England. She is best known for the ''Mary Poppins'' series of books, which feature the eponymous ...

' '' Mary Poppins''; Morris West'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 Sumner Locke Elliott 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 equival ...

'' 1998; '' Oscar and Lucinda'' 1989; and '' Bliss'' 1981). He has twice won the

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...

with 1988's '' Oscar and Lucinda'' and 2001's '' True History of the Kelly Gang''. DBC Pierre's ''

Vernon God Little ''Vernon God Little'' (2003) is a novel by DBC Pierre. It was his debut novel and won the Man Booker Prize in 2003. It has twice been adapted as a stage play. Plot synopsis The life of Vernon Little, a normal teenager who lives in Martirio, T ...

'' won the Booker Prize in 2003. Other notable writers to have emerged since the 1970s include Kate Grenville, David Malouf,

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 (South ...

Marion Halligan Marion Mildred Halligan AM (born 1940) is an Australian writer and novelist. She was born and educated in Newcastle, New South Wales, and worked as a school teacher and journalist before publishing her first short stories. Halligan has served a ...

, Susan Johnson, Christopher Koch, Alex Miller, Shirley Hazzard,

Richard Flanagan Richard Miller Flanagan (born 1961) is an Australian writer, who has also worked as a film director and screenwriter. He won the 2014 Man Booker Prize for his novel '' The Narrow Road to the Deep North''. Flanagan was described by the ''Washing ...

, Gerald Murnane,

Brenda Walker Brenda Walker (born 1957 in Grafton, New South Wales) is an Australian writer. She studied at the University of New England in Armidale and, after gaining a PhD in English (on the work of Samuel Beckett) at the Australian National University ...

Rod Jones Rod Jones may refer to: Sports American football *Rod Jones (cornerback) (born 1964), American football cornerback in the National Football League *Rod Jones (offensive lineman) (born 1974), American football tackle in the National Football League ...

and Tim Winton.

James Clavell James Clavell (born Charles Edmund Dumaresq Clavell; 10 October 1921 – 7 September 1994) was an Australian-born British (later naturalized American) writer, screenwriter, director, and World War II veteran and prisoner of war. Clavell is best ...

in '' The Asian Saga'' discusses an important feature of Australian literature: its portrayal of far eastern culture, from the admittedly even further east, but nevertheless western cultural viewpoint, as Nevil Shute did. Clavell was also a successful

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

and along with such writers as Thomas Keneally (see above), has expanded the topics of Australian literature far beyond that one country. Other novelists to use international themes are David Malouf,

and

. '' The Secret River'' (2005) is an historical fiction by Kate Grenville 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 which was adapted for television by ABC1 in 2011, and was described in a review by

Gerard Windsor Gerard Charles Windsor (born 29 December 1944) is an Australian author and literary critic. He was dux of St Ignatius' College, Riverview in both 1961 and 1962, and a student of Melvyn Morrow. Windsor trained as a Jesuit from ages 18 to 24 bef ...

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 usually applied to

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...

al or semi-autobiographical writing concerned with dissatisfied and disenfranchised young people 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 (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning of life, meaning. The term was pop ...

pursuit of casual sex,

recreational drug use Recreational drug use indicates 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 by modifying the perceptions and emotions of the user. When a ...

and

alcohol Alcohol most commonly refers to: * Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom * Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks Alcohol may also refer to: Chemicals * Ethanol, one of sev ...

, which are used to escape boredom 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 and an offshoot of Generation X 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 Andrew McGahan (10 October 1966 – 1 February 2019) was an Australian novelist, best known for his first novel ''Praise'', and for his Miles Franklin Award-winning novel ''The White Earth''. His novel ''Praise'' is considered to be part of th ...

'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 statistical study of populations, especially human beings. Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as edu ...

. Other authors considered to be "grunge lit" include Linda Jaivin,

Fiona McGregor Fiona Kelly McGregor (born 1965) 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 W ...

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 ''The River Ophelia'' is an Australian novel by Justine Ettler first published by Picador in 1995. The story moves between first-person narrative to an unnamed observer. It was highly controversial in Australia upon its publication, with some pr ...

'' (1995) being called pornographic. The term "grunge lit" and its use to categorize and market this diverse group of writers and authorial styles has bees 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 dirty realism 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. 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 Re ...

's '' Three Dollars'' (1998),

Andrew McCann Andrew McCann is an Australian professor and fiction writer. He used the pen name "A. L. McCann" for his first book, ''The White Body of Evening'', to avoid confusion with fellow Australian writer Andrew McGahan. His second fiction book, ''Subto ...

's '' Subtopia'' (2005) and

Anthony Macris Anthony Macris (born 29 June 1962) is an Australian novelist, critic and academic. He has been shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Literary Awards, the ''Age'' Book of the Year, and been named a '' Sydney Morning Herald'' Best Young Australian N ...

' ''

Capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

''. Christie's dissertation interprets and explains these three post-grunge lit works "as responses to the embedding of Neoliberalism in Australian and global political culture".

Kalinda Ashton Kalinda Ashton is an Australian writer based in Melbourne, Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada ...

(born 1978) has been called a post-grunge writer, in part due to influences from grunge lit author Christos Tsiolkas. 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, Greek, Arabic, Chinese, Vietnamese, Lao, Filipino, Latvian, Ukrainian, Polish, Russian,

Serbian Serbian may refer to: * someone or something related to Serbia, a country in Southeastern Europe * someone or something related to the Serbs, a South Slavic people * Serbian language * Serbian names See also

* * * Old Serbian (disambiguat ...

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...

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 ''The Poison of Polygamy'' () is a novel written in Literary Chinese and first published in serial form in the ''Chinese Times'' in Melbourne, Australia, between June 1909 and December 1910. It was the first novel by a Chinese diaspora writer to ...

'' (1909–10) by

Wong Shee Ping Wong Shee Ping (c. 1875 – 1948), 黃樹屏, also known as Wong Yau Kung 黃右公/黃又公, was a Chinese writer, newspaper editor, political activist and Christian preacher. Born in the county of Kaiping in the southern Chinese province o ...

, 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. Watkin Tench (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 Thomas Keneally to be essential reading for the early history of Australia/ Charles Bean was the official war historian of the First World War and was influential in establishing the importance of ANZAC 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'' 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 is Australia's national memorial to the members of its armed forces and supporting organisations who have died or participated in wars involving the Commonwealth of Australia and some conflicts involving pe ...

between 1952 and 1977. The main editor was Gavin Long. A significant milestone was the historian Manning Clark'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 Geoffrey Blainey 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. Marcia Langton is one of the principal contemporary Indigenous Australian academics and her 2008 collaboration with Rachel Perkins 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 '' mateship'' 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". Henry Lawson, 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. Miles Franklin, 1901 (31523140262)

What it means to be Australian is another issue that Australian literature explores. Miles Franklin 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 ''The Twyborn Affair'' is a novel by Australian Nobel laureate Patrick White, first published in 1979. The three parts of the novel are set in a villa on the French Riviera before the First World War, a sheep station on the edge of Australia's ...

'' 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.

's ''Praise'' (1992), Christos Tsiolkas's '' Loaded'' (1995), Justine Ettler's ''The River Ophelia'' (1995) and Brendan Cowell's ''How It Feels'' (2010) introduced a grunge lit, 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 affair led to an obscenity trial and is often blamed for the lack of modernist poetry in Australia. To mark the 60th anniversary of the Ern Malley affair, another Australian writer,

Leon Carmen Leon Carmen (born 1949) is an Australian author who is best known for the hoax that resulted from his authorship of the novel ''My Own Sweet Time''—which he wrote under the pseudonym "Wanda Koolmatrie". Background Carmen grew up in Torrens Par ...

, 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 B. Wongar (born 1932 as Sreten Božić) is a Serbian-Australian writer. For most of his literary career, the concern of his writing has been, almost exclusively, the condition of Aboriginal people in Australia. His 1978 short story collection, ...

. In the 1990s, Helen Darville 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 the Ukraine.

Mudrooroo Colin Thomas Johnson (21 August 1938 – 20 January 2019), better known by his nom de plume Mudrooroo, was a novelist, poet, essayist and playwright. He has been described as one of the most enigmatic literary figures of Australia and his many ...

—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 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 odes appeared in ''The Sydney Gazette''. Charles Harpur and Henry Kendall were the first poets of any consequence. Henry Lawson, 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 and Adam Lindsay Gordon; Gordon was once referred to as the " national poet of Australia" and is the only Australian with a monument in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey 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 was blessed with 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 c ...

s and ballads. Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson 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". At one point, Lawson and Paterson contributed a series of verses to ''

The Bulletin Bulletin or The Bulletin may refer to: Periodicals (newspapers, magazines, journals) * Bulletin (online newspaper), a Swedish online newspaper * ''The Bulletin'' (Australian periodical), an Australian magazine (1880–2008) ** Bulletin Debate, ...

'' 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 poem by Banjo Paterson, 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, and is one of his best-known w ...

" 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 '' vaquer ...

s of the

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

and the gauchos of the Argentine

pampa The Pampas (from the qu, pampa, meaning "plain") are fertile South American low grasslands that cover more than and include the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, and Córdoba; all of Uruguay; and Brazil ...

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 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 countr ...

. Dennis wrote in the Australian vernacular (" The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke"), while McKellar wrote the iconic patriotic poem " My Country". Prominent Australian poets of the 20th century include Dame Mary Gilmore,

, Judith Wright, Gwen Harwood, Kenneth Slessor, Les Murray, Bruce Dawe and more recently Robert Gray, John Forbes,

John Tranter John Ernest Tranter (born 29 April 1943) is an Australian poet, publisher and editor. He has published more than twenty books of poetry; devising, with Jan Garrett, the long running ABC radio program ''Books and Writing''; and founding in 1997 ...

, John Kinsella and Judith Beveridge. Dorothea Mackellar

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'' is an Australian Press, publishing a range of "poetry outreach" projects in a number of media ranging from a literary magazine to poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of ...

. 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 The Bankstown Poetry Slam is the largest regular poetry slam in Australia. History The Bankstown Poetry Slam (BPS) was founded in 2013 by Sara Mansour and Ahmad Al Rady, and held in the southwest Sydney suburb of Bankstown. Since its inception, the ...

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 contains a wide range of Australian poetry as well as critical and contextual material relating to them, such as interviews, photographs and audio/visual recordings. it contains over 42,000 poems, from more than 170 Australian poets. Begun in 2004 by leading Australian poet

, it is a joint initiative of the University of Sydney and the

Copyright Agency Limited Copyright Agency Ltd (CAL) is an Australian not-for-profit public company that facilitates reuse of copyrighted material by third parties, collecting fees and delivering the payments to the creators. Its business names include Viscopy, Rightsport ...

(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'', ...

Plays

European traditions came to Australia with the

in 1788, with the first production being performed in 1789 by convicts : '' The Recruiting Officer'' 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 ...

.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'' by Timberlake Wertenbaker: the participants were prisoners watched by sadistic guards and the leading lady was under threat of the death penalty. The play is based on Thomas Keneally's novel ''

The Playmaker ''The Playmaker'' is a novel based in Australia written by the Australian author Thomas Keneally. In 1789 in Sydney Cove, the remotest penal colony of the British Empire, a group of convicts and one of their captors unite to stage a play. Gover ...

''. After Australian Federation in 1901, plays evidenced a new sense of national identity. ''On Our Selection'' (1912) by Steele Rudd, told of the adventures of a pioneer farming family and became immensely popular. In 1955, '' Summer of the Seventeenth Doll'' by Ray Lawler 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 David Williamson, Barry Oakley and Jack Hibberd. The Belvoir St Theatre presented works by Nick Enright and David Williamson. Williamson is Australia's best known playwright, with major works including: '' The Club, Emerald City'', and ''

Brilliant Lies ''Brilliant Lies'' is a 1996 Australian drama film produced by Bayside Pictures and Beyond Films. It stars Gia Carides and Anthony LaPaglia. It was directed by Richard Franklin and produced by Sue Farrelly, Kim McKillop and Richard Franklin. ...

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

ANZAC Day , image = Dawn service gnangarra 03.jpg , caption = Anzac Day Dawn Service at Kings Park, Western Australia, 25 April 2009, 94th anniversary. , observedby = Australia Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Cook Islands New ...

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 of nuclear testing in the Western Desert during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

. 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 David Williamson, Alan Seymour, Stephen Sewell, the late Nick Enright 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 Ben Peek (born 12 October 1976 in Sydney, New South Wales) is an Australian author. His middle name is Michael. Peek's short stories have been published in a variety of genre magazines, including '' Fantasy Magazine'' and ''Aurealis''. His fi ...

was sold at auction to a UK publisher for a six-figure deal .

Crime

The crime fiction genre is currently thriving in Australia, most notably through books written by Kerry Greenwood,

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 Barry Maitland (born 1941 in Scotland) is an Australian author of crime fiction. After studying architecture at Cambridge, Maitland practised and taught in the UK before moving to Australia, where he became a Professor of Architecture at the ...

, Arthur Upfield and Peter Corris, 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'', about a sexual harassment scandal at the University of Melbourne, ''

Joe Cinque's Consolation ''Joe Cinque's Consolation: A True Story of Death, Grief and the Law'' is a non-fiction book written by Australian author Helen Garner, and published in 2004. It is an account of Garner's presence at the separate trials of Anu Singh and her fr ...

'', 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. Each of Garner's works incorporates the style reminiscent of a fictional narrative novel, a stylistic device known as the non-fiction novel. Chloe Hooper published '' The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island'' in 2008 as a response to the death of an Aboriginal man,

Cameron Doomadgee The 2004 Palm Island death in custody incident relates to the death of an Aboriginal resident of Palm Island, Cameron Doomadgee (also known as "Mulrunji") on Friday, 19 November 2004 in a police cell. The death of Mulrunji led to civic disturba ...

, in police custody in Palm Island, Queensland.

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'' * '' Overland'' * '' HEAT'' * '' Southerly'' * '' Westerly'' Other journals include: * '' Quadrant'' * ''

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 'to ...

'' * '' Island'' * '' Voiceworks'' * ''

Wet Ink ''Wet Ink'' magazine was an Australian magazine devoted to publishing new Australian writing, with an emphasis on new and emerging writers. Published quarterly, it featured fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction, plus an interview with a writer ...

'' (now closed) * '' The Lifted Brow'' * ''

Red Leaves / 紅葉 ''Red Leaves'' / 紅葉 is an English-language and Japanese bilingual literary magazine. Description Based out of Melbourne, Australia and Tokyo, Japan, ''Red Leaves'' / 紅葉 is edited by writers Kirk Marshall and Yasuhiro Horiuchi, and d ...

'' * '' Kill Your Darlings'' A number of newspapers also carry literary review supplements: * '' Australian Literary Review''

Awards

Current literary awards in Australia include: * Anne Elder Award * The Australian/Vogel Literary Award *

* Ditmar Award 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 for a first book of poetry *

* New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards * Patrick White Award * Peter Blazey Fellowship * Prime Minister's Literary Awards *

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 * Western Australian Premier's Book Awards Australian authors are also eligible for a number of other literary awards, such as the: *

* Commonwealth Writers' Prize * Women's Prize for Fiction

References

External links

* Th
Library of Australiana
page a
Project Gutenberg of Australia

Bibliography of Australian Literature to 1954
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Freeread

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

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