2018 in Australian literature

This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 2018.

Major publications

Literary fiction

• Michael Mohammed Ahmad, The Lebs
• Robbie Arnott, Flames
• Trent Dalton, Boy Swallows Universe
• Gregory Day, A Sand Archive
• Ceridwen Dovey, In the Garden of the Fugitives
• Rodney Hall, A Stolen Season
• Gail Jones, The Death of Noah Glass
• Eleanor Limprecht, The Passengers
• Melissa Lucashenko, Too Much Lip
• Jennifer Mills, Dyschronia
• Heather Morris, The Tattooist of Auschwitz
• Kate Morton, The Clockmaker's Daughter
• Kristina Olsson, Shell
• Ryan O'Neill, 99 Interpretations of The Drover's Wife
• Heather Rose, The Museum of Modern Love
• Kim Scott, Taboo
• Tim Winton, The Shepherd's Hut
• Markus Zusak, Bridge of Clay

Children's and Young Adult fiction

• Maxine Beneba Clarke, Wide Big World, illustrated by Isobel Knowles
• Andy Griffiths, The 104-Storey Treehouse
• Ambelin Kwaymullina and Ezekial Kwaymullina, Catching Teller Crow
• Richard Roxburgh, Artie and the Grime Wave
• Shaun Tan, Cicada
• Shaun Tan, Tales from the Inner City
• Lili Wilkinson, After the Lights Go Out

Crime

• Candice Fox, Redemption Point
• Kerry Greenwood, The Spotted Dog
• Jane Harper, The Dry
• Chloe Hooper, The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire
• Michael Robotham, The Other Wife

Science Fiction and Fantasy

• Alan Baxter
  • Hidden City
  • Devouring Dark
• Kylie Chan, Scales of Empire
• Traci Harding, This Present Past
• Kaaron Warren, Tide of Stone

Poetry

• Jordie Albiston, Warlines
• Judith Beveridge, Sun Music: New and Selected Poems
• Ken Bolton, Starting at Basheer's
• Sarah Day, Towards Light & Other Poems
• Paul Hetherington, Moonlight on Oleander
• Bella Li, Lost Lake
• John Mateer, João
• Tim Metcalf, The Underwritten Plain
• Tracy Ryan, The Water Bearer

Drama

• Alana Valentine, The Sugar House

Biographies and memoirs

• Peter FitzSimons, Monash's Masterpiece
• Jacqui Lambie, Rebel with a Cause: You can't keep a bloody Lambie down — my story from soldier to senator and beyond
• Bri Lee, Eggshell Skull
• Anne Summers, Unfettered and Alive: A Memoir
• Gillian Triggs, Speaking Up
• Nadia Wheatley, Her Mother's Daughter

Non-fiction

• Cynthia Banham, A Certain Light
• Steve Biddulph, Raising Boys In The Twenty-First Century: How To Help Our Boys Become Open-Hearted, Kind And Strong Men
• Behrouz Boochani, No Friend But the Mountains
• Stephen Gapps, The Sydney Wars: Conflict in the Early Colony 1788–1817
• Richard Glover, The Land Before Avocado
• Billy Griffiths, Deep Time Dreaming
• Anita Heiss (editor), Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia
• Thomas Keneally, Australians: A Short History
• Meredith Lake, The Bible in Australia: A cultural history
• Michael C Madden, The Victoria Cross: Australia Remembers
• Leigh Sales, Any Ordinary Day

Awards and honours

Note: these awards were presented in the year in question.

Lifetime achievement

Award	Author
Patrick White Award[1]	Samuel Wagan Watson

National

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
The Australian/Vogel Literary Award[2]		Emily O'Grady	The Yellow House	Allen & Unwin
Miles Franklin Award[3][4]		Michelle de Kretser	The Life to Come	Allen & Unwin
Prime Minister's Literary Awards[5]	Fiction	Gerald Murnane	Border Districts	Giramondo
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[6]	Fiction	Bram Presser	The Book of Dirt	Text Publishing
Queensland Literary Awards[7]	Fiction	Kim Scott	Taboo	Pan Macmillan
Stella Prize[8]		Alexis Wright	Tracker	Giramondo
Victorian Premier's Literary Award[9]	Fiction	Melanie Cheng	Australia Day	Text Publishing

National

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
Children's Book of the Year Award[10]	Older Readers	Cath Crowley, Fiona Wood and Simmone Howell	Take Three Girls	Pan Macmillan
	Younger Readers	Bren MacDibble	How to Bee	Allen & Unwin
	Picture Book	Gwyn Perkins	A Walk in the Bush	Affirm Press
	Early Childhood	Michael Gerard Bauer; Chrissie Krebs (illustrator)	Rodney Loses It!	Omnibus Books
	Eve Pownall Award for Information Books	Idan Ben-Barak, illus. Julian Frost	Do Not Lick This Book	Allen & Unwin
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[6]	Children's	Bren MacDibble	How to Bee	Allen & Unwin
	Young People's	Zana Fraillon	The Ones That Disappeared	Lothian
Victorian Premier's Literary Award[9]	Young Adult Fiction	Demet Divaroren	Living on Hope Street	Allen & Unwin

National

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
Davitt Award[11]	Novel	Emma Viskic	And Fire Came Down	Echo Books
Ned Kelly Award[12]	Novel	Sulari Gentill	Crossing the Lines	Pantera
	First novel	Sarah Bailey	The Dark Lake	Allen & Unwin

Science Fiction

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
Ditmar Award[13]	Novel	Thoralya Dyer	Crossroads of Canopy	Tor
	Best Novella or Novelette	Tansey Rayner Roberts	"Girl Reporter"	Girl Reporter (Book Smugglers Publishing)
	Best Short Story	Janeen Webb	"A Pearl Beyond Price"	Cthulhu Deep Down-Under Vol 1 (IFWG Publishing Australia)

Non-Fiction

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
National Biography Award[14]	Biography	Judith Brett	The Enigmatic Mr Deakin	Text Publishing
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[6]	Non-Fiction	Paul Ham	Passchendaele: Requiem for Doomed Youth	William Heinemann Australia
New South Wales Premier's History Awards[15]	Australian History	Christina Twomey	The Battle Within: POWs in Postwar Australia	NewSouth Publishing
	Community and Regional History	Paul Irish	Hidden in Plain View: The Aboriginal People of Coastal Sydney	NewSouth Publishing
	General History	Sean Scalmer	On the Stump: Campaign Oratory and Democracy in the United States, Britain, and Australia	Temple University Press
Queensland Literary Awards[7]	Non-Fiction	Alexis Wright	Tracker	Giramondo Publishing
Victorian Premier's Literary Award[9]	Non-fiction	Sarah Krasnostein	The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman's Extraordinary Life in Death, Decay & Disaster	Text Publishing

Poetry

Award	Author	Title	Publisher
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[6]	Bella Li	Argosy	Vagabond Press
Victorian Premier's Literary Award[9]	Bella Li	Argosy	Vagabond Press

Drama

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[6]	Script (joint winners)	Amanda Blue and Jacob Hickey	Deep Water: The Real Story	Blackfella Films
		Jane Campion and Gerard Lee	Birthday, Top of the Lake: China Girl, Series 2 Episode 4	See Saw Films
	Play	Nakkiah Lui	Black is the New White	Sydney Theatre Company

Deaths

• 6 March – Peter Nicholls, 78, writer and editor of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (born 1939)[16]
• 8 March – Peter Temple, 71, author of Jack Irish series (born 1946)[17]
• 14 April – Frank Bren, 74, Australian actor and playwright (born 1943)[18]
• 16 April – Beverley Farmer, 77, novelist and short story writer (born 1941)[19]
• 1 June – Jill Ker Conway, 83, academic and memoir writer, author of The Road from Coorain (born 1934)[20]
• 30 August – Peter Corris, 76, crime novelist (born 1942)[21]
• 31 August – Ian Jones, 86, author and television writer and director (born 1931)[22]
• 12 September – Albert Ullin OAM, 88, German Australian children's bookseller and founder of Australia's first children's bookstore, The Little Bookroom (born 1930)[23]
• 16 September – John Molony, 91, historian and Emeritus Professor of History at Australian National University (born 1927)[24]
• 6 October – James Cowan, 76, author (born 1942)[25]
• 21 October – Eleanor Witcombe, 95, screenwriter and playwright (born 1923)[26]
• 22 October
  • Anne Fairbairn, 90, poet, journalist and expert in Arab culture (born 1928)[27]
  • Rose Zwi, 90, novelist (born 1928)[28]
• 22 November – Judith Rodriguez, 82, poet and academic (born 1936)[29]

See also

• Literature
• List of years in Australian literature
• List of Australian literary awards

References

1. "Samuel Wagan Watson wins Patrick White Literary Award". Books+Publishing. 15 November 2018. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
2. "Brisbane author Emily O'Grady wins $20,000 Vogel Literary Award". ABC News. 23 April 2018. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
3. "Miles Franklin Literary Awards Applications | Perpetual | Perpetual". www.perpetual.com.au. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
4. "Michelle de Kretser wins her second Miles Franklin award with The Life To Come". ABC News. 26 August 2018. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
5. "Winners announced for PM's literary awards 2018". Books+Publishing. 5 December 2018. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
6. Morris, Linda (30 April 2018). "Stories of ancestral memory storm NSW Premier's Literary Awards". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
7. "Queensland Literary Awards 2018 winners announced | Books+Publishing". Retrieved 23 October 2018.
8. The 2018 Stella Prize. Retrieved 13 April 2018
9. "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2018". The Wheeler Centre. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
10. "CBCA - Book of the Year Awards 2018". cbca.org.au. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
11. "'And Fire Came Down' wins best novel at 2018 Davitt Awards | Books+Publishing". Retrieved 28 August 2018.
12. "Gentill, Bailey win 2018 Ned Kelly Awards | Books+Publishing". Retrieved 28 August 2018.
13. "Ditmar Awards 2018 winners announced". Books + Publishing. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
14. Convery, Stephanie (6 August 2018). "Judith Brett wins National Biography award for 'profound' look at life of Alfred Deakin". the Guardian. Retrieved 6 August 2018.
15. "Winners of the 2018 NSW Premier's History Awards announced | Books+Publishing". Retrieved 3 September 2018.
16. Mort de Peter Nicholls, éditeur de l'Encyclopédie de la science-fiction(in French)
17. "Acclaimed crime writer Peter Temple dies, aged 71". Sydney Morning Herald. 11 March 2018. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
18. "Frank Desmond Bren". Legacy.com. 16 April 2018. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
19. "Beverley Anne Farmer". Legacy.com. 19 April 2018. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
20. Schmeidel, Stacey (2 June 2018). "Smith's first woman president, acclaimed scholar Jill Ker Conway, dies at 83". Daily Hampshire Gazette. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
21. "Peter Corris, author of Cliff Hardy crime novels, dies aged 76 - ABC News". www.abc.net.au. 30 August 2018. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
22. Bunn, Anthony (31 August 2018). "Author Ian Jones, who wrote about the life of bushranger Ned Kelly, has died at the age of 86". Border Mail. Fairfax Ltd. Retrieved 31 August 2018.
23. "Ullin. – Albert Henry". Legacy.com. 14 September 2018. Archived from the original on 13 September 2018. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
24. Pryor, Sally (20 September 2018). "ANU historian John Molony dead at 91". The Canberra Times. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
25. {cite web |last1=Thompson |first1=Peter |title=An adventurous poet and writer |url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/james-cowan-author-poet-obituary-writer-20181030-p50ctr.html |publisher=The Sydney Morning Herald |accessdate=3 November 2018 |date=30 October 2018}}
26. "Eleanor Witcombe: Her brilliant career". The Sydney Morning Herald. 13 November 2018. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
27. https://www.amust.com.au/2018/10/anne-fairbairn-passed-away/
28. "RiP Rose Zwi". Books+Publishing. 31 October 2018. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
29. "Judith Catherine Rodriguez". The Sydney Morning Herald. 24 November 2018. Retrieved 24 November 2018.