bush poet The bush ballad, bush song or bush poem is a style of poetry and folk music that depicts the life, character and scenery of the Australian bush. The typical bush ballad employs a straightforward rhyme structure to narrate a story, often one of a ...

Banjo Paterson Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, (17 February 18645 February 1941) was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the ...

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 Miles ...

Alan Gould Alan Gould (born 22 March 1949) is a contemporary Australian novelist, essayist and poet. Life and career Gould was born in London to an English father and an Icelandic mother. His family lived in Northern Ireland, Germany and Singapore before ...

Liam Davison Liam Patrick Davison (29 July 1957 – 17 July 2014) was an Australian novelist and reviewer. He was born in Melbourne, where, until 2007, he taught creative writing at the Chisholm Institute in Frankston. Biography Davison was educated at S ...

Roger McDonald Hugh Roger McDonald (born 23 June 1941 in Young, New South Wales) is an Australian award-winning author of several novels and a number of non-fiction works. He is also an accomplished poet and TV scriptwriter. Life and career The middle son of ...

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 ...

Banjo Paterson Writing Award The Banjo Paterson Writing Award is an Australian literary award honouring the legacy of Australian writer Andrew Barton Paterson (1864-1941) and is awarded annually in the categories of prose, poetry and children’s writing. William Nagle for ''

The Odd Angry Shot ''The Odd Angry Shot'' is an 1979 Australian war comedy film written, directed and produced by Tom Jeffrey (with Sue Millikin). It is based on the book of the same title by William Nagel, and follows the experiences of Australian soldiers dur ...

'' * 1978

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 ...

for '' Monkey Grip'' * 1981

David Foster David Walter Foster (born November 1, 1949) is a Canadian musician, composer, arranger, record producer and music executive who chaired Verve Records from 2012 to 2016. He has won 16 Grammy Awards from 47 nominations. His music career spans mor ...

for ''Moonlight'' * 1982 Peter Carey for ''

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 b ...

'' * 1985 Peter Carey for ''

Illywhacker ''Illywhacker'' is a novel by Australian writer Peter Carey. It was published in 1985 to commercial and critical success, winning a number of awards and being short-listed for the Booker Prize. Considered metafiction or magical realism, th ...

'' * 1988

Graeme Harper Graeme Harper (born 11 March 1945) is a British television director. He is best known for his work on the science-fiction series '' Doctor Who'', for which he is the only person to have directed episodes of both the original run (1963–89) an ...

for ''Black Cat, Green Field'' * 1989 Peter Carey for ''

Oscar and Lucinda ''Oscar and Lucinda'' is a novel by Australian author Peter Carey which won the 1988 Booker Prize and the 1989 Miles Franklin Award. It was shortlisted for The Best of the Booker. Plot introduction It tells the story of Oscar Hopkins, the D ...

'' * 1991

Glenda Adams Glenda Emilie Adams (née Felton; 30 December 1939 – 11 July 2007) was an Australian novelist and short story writer, probably best known as the winner of the 1987 Miles Franklin Award for ''Dancing on Coral''. She was a teacher of creative w ...

for ''Longleg'' 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 Miles ...

for ''

Cloudstreet ''Cloudstreet'' is a novel by Australian writer Tim Winton published in 1991. It chronicles the lives of two working-class families, the Pickles and the Lambs, who come to live together in a large house called Cloudstreet in Perth, Western Aus ...

'' * 1992

Alan Gould Alan Gould (born 22 March 1949) is a contemporary Australian novelist, essayist and poet. Life and career Gould was born in London to an English father and an Icelandic mother. His family lived in Northern Ireland, Germany and Singapore before ...

for ''To the Burning City'' * 1993

Liam Davison Liam Patrick Davison (29 July 1957 – 17 July 2014) was an Australian novelist and reviewer. He was born in Melbourne, where, until 2007, he taught creative writing at the Chisholm Institute in Frankston. Biography Davison was educated at S ...

for ''Soundings'' * 1994

Elizabeth Jolley Monica Elizabeth Jolley AO (4 June 1923 – 13 February 2007) was an English-born Australian writer who settled in Western Australia in the late 1950s and forged an illustrious literary career there. She was 53 when her first book was publishe ...

for ''The Georges' Wife'' * 1995 Sally Morrison for ''Mad Meg'' * 1996

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 ...

for ''Billy Sunday'' * 1997

Brian Castro Brian Albert Castro (born 16 January 1950) is an Australian novelist and essayist. Biography Castro was born in Hong Kong and has lived in Australia since 1961. He was Chair of Creative Writing (2008-2019) at the University of Adelaide and Di ...

for ''Stepper''

Non-fiction

* 1978 Kevin Gilbert for ''Living Black: Blacks Talk to Kevin Gilbert'' (1977) * 1981

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 literat ...

for ''

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 return ...

'' * 1993

Roger McDonald Hugh Roger McDonald (born 23 June 1941 in Young, New South Wales) is an Australian award-winning author of several novels and a number of non-fiction works. He is also an accomplished poet and TV scriptwriter. Life and career The middle son of ...

for ''Shearers' Motel'' * 1994

Hazel Rowley Hazel Joan Rowley (16 November 1951 – 1 March 2011) was a British-born Australian author and biographer. Born in London, Rowley emigrated with her parents to Adelaide at the age of eight. She studied at the University of Adelaide, gradua ...

for ''Christina Stead: A Biography'' (1994) * 1996 Henry Reynolds

Notes

Notable shortlisted authors include *

Matthew Condon Matthew Condon (born 1962) is a prize-winning Australian writer and journalist. Biography Educated at the University of Queensland and the Goethe Institute, Bremen, Germany, he is the author of ten novels and short story collections, includi ...

was shortlisted in 1992 for ''Usher'' and in 1995 for The Ancient Guild of Tycoons, *

Robert Dessaix Robert Dessaix (born 17 February 1944) is an Australian novelist, essayist and journalist. Biography Robert Dessaix was born in Sydney and adopted at an early age by Tom and Jean Jones, after which he was known as Robert Jones. Tom Jones, a ...

for '' A Mother's Disgrace'' in 1994. *

Garry Disher Garry Disher (born 15 August 1949, in Corporate Town of Burra, South Australia) is an Australian author of crime fiction and children's literature. Awards *The Canberra Times National Short Story Competition, 1986: winner for "Amateur Hour" ...

for ''The Sunken Road'' in 1996. *

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 ...

for ''

Death of a River Guide Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

'' (1995) *

David Foster (novelist) David Manning Foster is an Australian novelist and scientist. He has written a range of satires on the theme of the decline of Western civilization, as well as producing short stories, poetry, essays, and a number of radio plays. Early life ...

for '' The Glade Within the Grove'', 1996 * Rodney Hall for ''Captivity Captive'' in 1989 and ''

The Grisly Wife ''The Grisly Wife'' is a 1993 Miles Franklin literary 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 ...

'' in 1994. *

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 ...

for ''Spider Cup'' in 1990 and ''Lovers' Knots: A Hundred-Year Novel'' in 1993 *

Susan Johnson (Australian author) Susan Johnson (born 1956) is an Australian author of literary fiction, memoir, short stories and essays. She has been a full-time writer since 1985, with occasional stints of journalism at Australian newspapers, journals and magazines. Biography ...

''A Big Life'' (1993); *

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 ...

for ''

The Ancestor Game ''The Ancestor Game'' is a 1992 Miles Franklin literary award-winning novel by the Australian author Alex Miller. Abstract Writer Steven Muir, August Spiess and his daughter Gertrude, work together to understand the puzzle of Lang Tzu, an exile ...

'' (1993) For other Australian literary awards, see

List of Australian literary awards A list of Australian literary awards and prizes: Literature * ABC Fiction Award (2005–2009) * ACT Book of the Year * ACT Writing and Publishing Awards * Ada Cambridge Prize *The Age Book of the Year – discontinued after 2012; reinstitut ...

.

References

{{Reflist Australian fiction awards Australian non-fiction book awards 1997 disestablishments in Australia 1974 establishments in Australia