This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 2011.
Events
*Four authors are named in the Queen's Birthday Honours:
Peter FitzSimons
Peter John Allen FitzSimons (born 29 June 1961) is an Australian author, journalist, and radio and television presenter. He is a former national representative rugby union player and has been the chair of the Australian Republic Movement si ...
,
Susanne Gervay,
Roland Perry, and
Chris Wallace-Crabbe[Australian Writers Named in Queen's Birthday Honours]
/ref>
*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 non-fiction novel ''Schindler's Ark'', the story of Oskar Schindler's rescu ...
donates his personal library to the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts[Keneally's Library Finds New Home]
/ref>
*Australian libraries and library associations join together to make 2012 the National Year of Reading
/ref>
*Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) declares Saturday, 20 August 2011, the inaugural National Bookshop Day
/ref>
* Final issue of the "Australian Literary Review" to be published in October 2011
/ref>
*Hannie Rayson
Hannie Rayson (born 1957) is an Australian playwright and newspaper columnist. She is recognised as one of Australia's most significant playwrights.
Biography
Rayson was born in Melbourne, Victoria and graduated from the University of Melbourn ...
is the first Australian to be awarded a commission with New York’s Manhattan Theatre Club[Hannie Rayson Wins New York Commission]
/ref>
*Friends and family of biographer 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, gra ...
establish funds to commemorate Rowley’s life and her writing legacy via the Hazel Rowley Literary Fund[Hazel Rowley's Literary Legacy]
/ref>
* Alison Lester and Boori Monty Pryor are appointed to be Australia’s first Children’s Laureates[Australia's First Children's Laureates Announced]
/ref>
*The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) appoints Robert Adamson to hold the inaugural CAL Chair in Australian Poetry[UTS Appoints Inaugural CAL Chair in Australian Poetry]
/ref>
Major publications
Literary fiction
* Tony Birch – ''Blood
Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood in th ...
''
* Geraldine Brooks – ''Caleb's Crossing''
* Annah Faulkner
Annah Faulkner (1949/1950 – 8 March 2022) was an Australian novelist.
At the age of five, Faulkner moved with her parents to Papua New Guinea and later lived on Queensland's Sunshine Coast with her husband. She died in March 2022, after le ...
– ''The Beloved''
* Anna Funder – '' All That I Am''
* 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 ''The Idea of Perfection ...
– ''Sarah Thornhill
''Sarah Thornhill'' (2011) is a novel by Australian author Kate Grenville. It is the sequel to the author's 2005 novel '' The Secret River''.
It won the 2012 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) — Australian General Fiction Book of the Ye ...
''
* Gail Jones – ''Five Bells
"Five Bells" (1939) is a meditative poem by Australian poet Kenneth Slessor. It was originally published as the title poem in the author's collection ''Five Bells : XX Poems'', and later appeared in numerous poetry anthologies.
Outline
The po ...
''
* Jeanine Leane – '' Purple Threads''
* Gillian Mears – '' Foal's Bread''
* Alex Miller – ''Autumn Laing
''Autumn Laing'' is a 2011 novel by the Australian author Alex Miller.
Awards and nominations
* Winner, Melbourne Prize for Literature 2012
* Shortlisted, 2012 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction
* Shortlisted, 2011 Manning Clark House N ...
''
* Frank Moorhouse – '' Cold Light''
* Favel Parrett – ''Past The Shallows
''Past the Shallows'' (2011) is a novel by Australian author Favel Parrett. It was shortlisted for the 2012 Miles Franklin Award. It has been published in Australia, the UK, the US, Germany and Italy. Past the Shallows has also been used as a pre ...
''
* 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 ...
– ''The Street Sweeper''
* Craig Sherborne – ''The Amateur Science of Love''
* Rohan Wilson – '' The Roving Party''
* Charlotte Wood – ''Animal People''
Children's and Young Adult fiction
* Alexandra Adornetto – ''Hades''
* Em Bailey – ''Shift''
* J. C. Burke – ''Pig Boy
''Pig Boy'' (2011) is a crime novel by Australian author J. C. Burke. It won the 2012 Ned Kelly Award.
Plot summary
Damon Styles is expelled from school on his eighteenth birthday. He gets himself a firearms licence and intends to get a job s ...
''
* Isobelle Carmody
Isobelle Jane Carmody (born 16 June 1958) is an Australian writer of science fiction, fantasy, children's literature, and young adult literature. She is recipient of the Aurealis Award for best children's fiction.
Biography
Isobelle Carmody ...
– ''The Sending
''The Sending'' is the sixth novel in the Obernewtyn Chronicles by Australian author Isobelle Carmody, and is the penultimate book in the series. It was originally intended to be the final book, but this was changed to allow Carmody to elaborate ...
''
* Ursula Dubosarsky – ''The Golden Day
''The Golden Day'' (2011) is a young adult mystery novel by Australian author Ursula Dubosarsky
Ursula Dubosarsky (born ''Ursula Coleman''; 1961 in Sydney) is an Australian writer of fiction and non-fiction for children and young adults, w ...
''
* Scott Gardner – ''The Dead I Know''
* Steven Herrick
Steven Herrick (born in Brisbane, 1958) is an Australian poet and author. Herrick has published twenty-six books for adults, young adults and children. He is widely regarded as a pioneer of verse-novels for children and young adults.
Herrick was ...
– ''Black Painted Fingernails''
* Andrew McGahan – ''The Coming of the Whirlpool''
* Melina Marchetta – ''Froi of the Exiles''
* Vikki Wakefield – ''All I Ever Wanted''
* Scott Westerfeld – ''Goliath
Goliath ( ) ''Goləyāṯ''; ar, جُليات ''Ǧulyāt'' (Christian term) or (Quranic term). is a character in the Book of Samuel, described as a Philistine giant defeated by the young David in single combat. The story signified King Saul's ...
''
Science Fiction and Fantasy
* Max Barry – ''Machine Man
Machine Man (also known as Aaron Stack, Mister Machine and serial number Z2P45-9-X-51 or X-51 for short) is an android superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by Jack Kirby for '' 2001: A ...
''
* Trudi Canavan – ''The Rogue
''The Rogue'' is a 1918 American short film, short silent comedy film (26 minute) featuring Billy West (silent film actor), Billy West and Oliver Hardy produced by King Bee Comedies.
The main character is a carbon copy of Charlie Chaplin's T ...
''
* Peter Docker – ''The Water Boys''
* Greg Egan
Greg Egan (born 20 August 1961) is an Australian science fiction writer and amateur mathematician, best known for his works of hard science fiction. Egan has won multiple awards including the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, the Hugo Award, ...
– ''The Clockwork Rocket''
* Will Elliott – ''Shadow''
* Kim Falconer
Kim Falconer (born 1954 in Santa Cruz, California) is an Australian author of YA and adult Speculative Fiction, living in New South Wales. She grew up on the once family-owned ''Wilder Ranch'', and emigrated to Australia in 1981. Active as a pr ...
– ''Road to the Soul''
* Pamela Freeman – ''Ember and Ash''
* Richard Harland – ''Liberator''
* Glenda Larke – ''Stormlord's Exile''
* Kim Westwood – '' The Courier's New Bicycle''
Crime and Mystery
* Alan Carter – ''Prime Cut''
* Peter Corris – ''Follow the Money''
* 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" ...
– ''Whispering Death''
* Kerry Greenwood
Kerry Isabelle Greenwood (born 1954) is an Australian author and lawyer. She has written many plays and books, most notably a string of historical detective novels centred on the character of Phryne Fisher, which was adapted as the popular tel ...
– ''Cooking the Books''
* Stuart Littlemore
Stuart Littlemore KC is an Australian barrister and former journalist and television presenter. He created ABC Television's long-running '' Media Watch'' program, which he hosted from its inception in 1989 to 1997.
Early career
Littlemore wa ...
– ''Harry Curry: Counsel of Choice''
* Barry Maitland
Barry Maitland (born 1941 in Scotland) is an Australian author of crime fiction. After studying architecture at Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River C ...
– ''Chelsea Mansion''
* Kel Robertson – ''Rip Off''
* Michael Robotham – ''The Wreckage''
Poetry
* Ali Alizadeh – ''Ashes in the Air''
* Joanne Burns – ''Amphora''
* Barry Hill – ''Lines for Birds: Poems and Paintings''
* John Kinsella – ''Armour''
* Geoffrey Lehmann
Geoffrey Lehmann (born 28 June 1940) is an Australian poet, children's writer, and tax lawyer. Lehmann grew up in McMahon's Point, Sydney, and attended the Shore School in North Sydney. He graduated in arts and law from the University of Sydn ...
and Robert Gray – ''Australian Poetry Since 1788'' (edited)
* Jaya Savige – ''Surface to Air''
Biography
* Julian Assange
Julian Paul Assange ( ; Hawkins; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. WikiLeaks came to international attention in 2010 when it published a series of leaks provided by U.S. Army i ...
– ''Julian Assange: The Unauthorised Autobiography''
* A. J. Brown – ''Michael Kirby: Paradoxes and Principles''
* Eileen Chanin – ''Book Life: The Life and Times of David Scott Mitchell 1836–1907''
* Raimond Gaita – ''After Romulus''
* Mark McKenna – ''An Eye for Eternity: The Life of Manning Clark''
* Susan Mitchell – ''Tony Abbott: A Man's Man''
* Christine Nixon – ''Fair Cop''
* Sue Pieters-Hawke – ''Hazel: My Mother's Story''
* Alice Pung – ''Her Father's Daughter''
* David Robert Walker – ''Not Dark Yet: A Personal History''
* Sarah Watt, William McInnes – ''Worse Things Happen at Sea''
Awards and honours
Lifetime achievement
Fiction
International
National
Children and Young Adult
National
Crime and Mystery
National
Science Fiction
Non-Fiction
Poetry
Drama
Deaths
* 1 March – 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, gra ...
, author (born 1951)
* 15 June – Anne Godfrey-Smith
Anne Godfrey-Smith (30 November 1921 – 15 June 2011) was an Australian poet, theatre director and women's activist.
Early life and education
Godfrey-Smith was born on 30 November 1921 in Launceston, Tasmania. Her mother, Margaret Edgewor ...
, poet and theatre producer/director (born 1921)
* 19 June – T. A. G. Hungerford, author (born 1915)
* 2 September – Bernard Smith, art historian (born 1916)
* 27 September – Sara Douglass
Sara Warneke (2 June 1957 – 27 September 2011), better known by her pen name Sara Douglass, was an Australian fantasy writer who lived in Hobart, Tasmania. She was a recipient of the Aurealis Award for best fantasy novel.
Biography
A ...
, author (born 1957)
* 4 October – Di Gribble, editor and publisher (born 1942)
* 8 December – Zelman Cowen, jurist (born 1919)
Unknown date
* May – Robert J. Merritt, playwright (born 1945)
See also
* Literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to inclu ...
* List of years in Australian literature
* List of Australian literary awards
* 2011 in Australia
* 2011 in literature
* 2011 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).
Events
* January 19 – Liz Lochhead becomes the second Scots Makar, the official national poet of Scotland.
* April 4 – ...
References
{{Years in Australian literature
Literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to inclu ...
Australian literature by year
21st-century Australian literature
2011 in literature