2020 in Australian literature

This is a list of historical events and publications of Australian literature during 2020.

Major publications

Literary fiction

• Patrick Allington, Rise & Shine
• Robbie Arnott, The Rain Heron
• James Bradley, Ghost Species
• Trent Dalton, All Our Shimmering Skies
• Jon Doust, Return Ticket
• Chris Flynn, Mammoth
• Anna Goldsworthy, Melting Moments
• Kate Grenville, A Room Made of Leaves
• Tom Keneally, The Dickens Boy
• Bem Le Hunte, Elephants with Headlights
• Sofie Laguna, Infinite Splendours
• Amanda Lohrey, The Labyrinth
• Laura Jean McKay, The Animals in That Country
• Ronnie Scott, The Adversary
• Evie Wyld, The Bass Rock

Children's and young adult fiction

• Garth Nix, The Left-Handed Booksellers of London
• Shaun Tan, Dog
• Jessica Townsend, Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow

Crime

• Anne Buist, The Long Shadow
• Candice Fox, Gathering Dark
• Dervla McTiernan, The Good Turn

Science Fiction and Fantasy

• Max Barry, Providence

Poetry

• Laurie Duggan, Homer Street
• Michael Farrell, Family Trees
• Kate Llewellyn, Harbour
• Felicity Plunkett, A Kinder Sea
• Ellen van Neerven
  • Homeland Calling: Words from a new generation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices (as editor)
  • Throat

Non-fiction

• Julia Baird, Phosphorescence: On awe, wonder and things that sustain you when the world goes dark
• Richard Fidler, The Golden Maze: A History of Prague
• Michael Gawenda, The Powerbroker: Mark Leibler, an Australian Life
• John Kinsella, Displaced: A Rural Life
• Michael Gawenda, The Powerbroker: Mark Leibler, an Australian
• Sophie McNeill, We Can't Say We Didn't Know: Dispatches from an age of impunity
• Brenda Niall, Friends and Rivals: Four Great Australian Writers: Barbara Baynton, Ethel Turner, Nettie Palmer, Henry Handel Richardson
• Caroline Overington, Missing William Tyrrell
• Christopher Pyne, The Insider: The scoops, the scandals and the serious business within the Canberra bubble
• Cassandra Pybus, Truganini: Journey Through the Apocalypse
• Miranda Tapsell, Top End Girl
• Robert Tickner, Ten Doors Down: The Story of an Extraordinary Adoption Reunion
• Malcolm Turnbull, A Bigger Picture

Awards and honours

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

Lifetime achievement

Award	Author
Patrick White Award	Gregory Day[1]

National

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
Miles Franklin Literary Award[2]	Fiction	Tara June Winch	The Yield	Penguin Random House
Prime Minister's Literary Awards[3]	Fiction	Tara June Winch	The Yield	Penguin Random House
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[4]		Tara June Winch	The Yield	Penguin Random House
Queensland Literary Awards[5]	Fiction	Mirandi Riwoe	Stone Sky Gold Mountain	University of Queensland Press
Stella Prize[6]		Jess Hill	See What You Made Me Do	Black Inc
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards[7][8]	Literature	S. Shakthidharan, with Eamon Flack	Counting and Cracking	Belvoir and Co-Curious
	Fiction	Christos Tsiolkas	Damascus	Allen & Unwin

National

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
Children's Book of the Year Award[9]	Older Readers	Vikki Wakefield	This Is How We Change the Ending	Text Publishing
	Younger Readers	Pip Harry	The Little Wave	University of Queensland Press
	Picture Book	Chris McKimmie	I Need a Parrot	Ford Street
	Early Childhood	Frances Watts	My Friend Fred	Allen & Unwin
	Eve Pownall Award for Information Books	Bruce Pascoe	Young Dark Emu: A truer history	Magabala Books
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[4]	Children's	Lian Tanner & Jonathan Bentley	Ella and the Ocean	Allen & Unwin
	Young People's	Karen Foxlee	Lenny's Book of Everything	Allen & Unwin
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards[7][8]	Young Adult Fiction	Helena Fox	How It Feels to Float	Pan Macmillan Australia

National

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
Davitt Award[10]	Novel	Meg Mundell	The Trespassers	UQP
Ned Kelly Award[11]	Novel	Christian White	The Wife and the Widow	Affirm Press
	First novel	Natalie Conyer	Present Tense	Clan Destine Press

Science Fiction

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
Ditmar Award[12]	Novel	Gillian Polack	The Year of the Fruit Cake	IFWG Publishing
	Best Short Fiction	Rivqa Rafael	"Whom My Soul Loves"

Non-Fiction

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
National Biography Award[13]	Biography	Patrick Mullins	Tiberius with a Telephone: The life and stories of William McMahon	Scribe Publications
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[4]	Non-Fiction	Patrick Mullins	Tiberius with a Telephone: The Life and Stories of William McMahon	Scribe Publications
New South Wales Premier's History Awards	Australian History	James Dunk	Bedlam at Botany Bay	NewSouth Publishing[14]
	Community and Regional History	Callum Clayton-Dixon	Surviving New England: A History of Aboriginal Resistance and Resilience Through the First Forty Years of Colonial Apocalypse	Nēwara Aboriginal Corporation[15]
	General History	Kate Fullagar	The Warrior, the Voyager, and the Artist: Three Lives in an Age of Empire	Yale University Press[16]
Queensland Literary Awards[5]	Non-Fiction	Joe Gorman	Heartland: How Rugby League Explains Queensland	University of Queensland Press
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards[7][8]	Non-Fiction	Christina Thompson	Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia	HarperCollins

Poetry

Award	Author	Title	Publisher
Anne Elder Award (joint winners)[17]	Cham Zhi Yi	blur by the	Subbed In
	Gareth Sion Jenkins	Recipes for the Disaster	Five Islands Press
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[4]	Peter Boyle	Enfolded in the Wings of a Great Darkness	Vagabond Press
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards[7][8]	Charmaine Papertalk Green	Nganajungu Yagu	Cordite

Drama

Award	Category	Author	Title
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[4]	Script	Kylie Boltin	Missing
		The Cry, Episode 2	Jacquelin Perske
	Play	S. Shakthidharan	Counting and Cracking

Deaths

• 1 January – Alexander Frater, 82, travel writer and journalist[18]
• 20 January – Steph Bowe, 25, young adult novelist and blogger[19]
• 1 April – Bruce Dawe, 90, poet[20]
• 14 May – Judith Clarke, 76, writer for children and teenagers[21]
• 10 June – Jesse Blackadder, 56, novelist, screenwriter and journalist[22]
• 7 July – Elizabeth Harrower, 92, novelist[23]
• 10 September – Barbara Ker Wilson, 90, English-born Australian editor and novelist[24]
• 29 September – Ania Walwicz, poet, playwright, prose writer and visual artist[25]
• 6 November – Gerald Stone, 87, journalist[26]
• 14 November – Greg Growden, 60, sports journalist, author and biographer[27]

See also

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

References

1. "Day wins Patrick White Literary Award". Books+Publishing. 30 November 2020. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
2. "Winch wins 2020 Miles Franklin for 'The Yield'". Books+Publishing. 16 July 2020. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
3. "Prime Minister's Literary Awards 2020 winners announced". Books+Publishing. 10 December 2020. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
4. Evans, Kate Evans (26 April 2020). "Novel celebrating Wiradjuri language wins Book of the Year at major literary awards". ABC News. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
5. Kim, Sharnie (4 September 2020). "Book about rugby league takes out richest prize in Queensland Literary Awards". ABC News. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
6. Convery, Stephanie (14 April 2020). "Jess Hill wins $50,000 Stella prize for See What You Made Me Do, book investigating domestic violence". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
7. "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2020". The Wheeler Centre. Retrieved 25 March 2020.
8. "Christos Tsiolkas' 'Damascus' wins best fiction at VPLAs". Books+Publishing. 11 February 2020. Retrieved 25 March 2020.
9. "CBCA Book of the Year 2020 winners announced". Books+Publishing. 16 October 2020. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
10. "Davitt Awards 2020 winners announced". Books+Publishing. 28 September 2020. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
11. "Ned Kelly Awards 2020 winners announced". Books+Publishing. 15 October 2020. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
12. "2020 Ditmar Winners". Locus Online. 21 September 2020. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
13. "'Tiberius with a Telephone' wins National Biography Award". Books+Publishing. 31 August 2020. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
14. "Australian History Prize". State Library of NSW. 25 March 2020. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
15. "NSW Community and Regional History Prize". State Library of NSW. 2 April 2020. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
16. "General History Prize". State Library of NSW. 2 April 2020. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
17. "Cham, Jenkins named joint winners of Anne Elder poetry award". Books+Publishing. 7 May 2020. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
18. Chesshyre, Robert (5 January 2020). "Obituary: Alexander Frater 1937-2020". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
19. Carmody, Broede (21 January 2020). "Great human': Tributes flow for YA author Steph Bowe". Sydney Morning-Herald.
20. Romei, Stephen (2 April 2020). "Australian poet Bruce Dawe dies, aged 90". The Australian. News Limited. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
21. "Vale Judith Clarke". Books+Publishing. 20 May 2020. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
22. Moran, Robert. "Award-winning author Jesse Blackadder dies, aged 56". Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
23. "Obituary - Elizabeth Harrower - Obituaries Australia". oa.anu.edu.au. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
24. "Barbara Ker Wilson". My Tributes. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
25. "Ania Walwicz Death Notice - Melbourne, Victoria | The Age". tributes.theage.com.au. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
26. Idato, Michael (6 November 2020). "60 minutes trailblazer and legendary TV producer Gerald Stone dead". The Age. Retrieved 6 November 2020.
27. FitzSimons, Peter (14 November 2020). "Vale Greg Growden, you will be long remembered". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 15 November 2020.