2021 in Australian literature
Literature-related events in Australia during the year of 2021
This is a list of historical events and publications of Australian literature during 2021.
Major publications
Literary fiction
- Aravind Adiga – Amnesty[1]
- Michael Mohammed Ahmad – The Other Half of You[2]
- Evelyn Araluen – Dropbear[3]
- Larissa Behrendt – After Story[4]
- Steven Carroll – O[5]
- Michelle de Kretser – Scary Monsters[6]
- Jennifer Down – Bodies of Light
- Briohny Doyle – Echolalia[7]
- Max Easton – The Magpie Wing[8]
- Nikki Gemmell – The Ripping Tree[9]
- Anita Heiss – Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray: River of Dreams
- John Kinsella – Pushing Back[10]
- Emily Maguire – Love Objects[11]
- Jennifer Mills – The Airways[12]
- Alice Pung – One Hundred Days[13]
- Claire Thomas – The Performance[14]
- Christos Tsiolkas – 7 ½[15]
- Michael Winkler – Grimmish
Collected essays
- Chelsea Watego – Another Day in the Colony[16]
Children's and young adult fiction
- Felicity Castagna – Girls in Boys' Cars[17]
- Sophie Gonzales – Only Mostly Devastated[18]
- Katrina Nannestad – Rabbit, Soldier, Angel Thief[19]
Crime and mystery
- Tim Ayliffe – The Enemy Within[20]
- Mark Brandi – The Others[21]
- B. M. Carroll – You Had It Coming[22]
- Candice Fox – The Chase
- Helen FitzGerald – Ash Mountain[23]
- Jack Heath – Kill Your Brother[24]
- Charlotte McConaghy – Once There Were Wolves[25]
- Debra Oswald – The Family Doctor[26]
- Kyle Perry – The Deep[27]
- Michael Robotham – When You Are Mine[28]
Poetry
- Pam Brown – Stasis Shuffle[29]
- Maxine Beneba Clarke – How Decent Folk Behave[30]
- Andy Jackson – Human Looking[31]
- Maria Takolander – Trigger Warning[32]
Non-fiction
- Randa Abdel-Fattah – Coming of Age in the War on Terror[33]
- Julia Banks – Power Play: Breaking Through Bias, Barriers and Boys' Clubs[34]
- Alison Croggon – Monsters: A reckoning[35]
- Mehreen Faruqi – Too Migrant, Too Muslim, Too Loud[36]
- Ross Garnaut – Reset: Restoring Australia after the Pandemic Recession[37]
- Stan Grant – With the Falling of the Dusk[38]
- Dale Kent – The Most I Could Be[39]
- Scott Ludlam – Full Circle: A search for the world that comes next[40]
- Mark McKenna – Return to Uluru[41]
- Henry Reynolds – Truth-Telling: History, sovereignty and the Uluru Statement[42]
- Jeff Sparrow – Crimes Against Nature: Capitalism and Global Heating[43]
- Corey Tutt and Blak Douglas (illustrator) – The First Scientists: Deadly Inventions and Innovations from Australia's First Peoples[44]
Awards and honours
Note: these awards were presented in the year in question.
Lifetime achievement
Award | Author |
---|---|
Melbourne Prize for Literature[45] | Christos Tsiolkas |
Patrick White Award[46] | Adam Aitken |
Literary
Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
---|---|---|---|
ALS Gold Medal[47] | Nardi Simpson | Song of the Crocodile | Hachette Australia |
Colin Roderick Award[48] | Sofie Laguna | Infinite Splendours | Allen & Unwin |
Indie Book Awards Book of the Year[49] | Pip Williams | The Dictionary of Lost Words | Affirm Press |
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[50] | Ellen van Neerven | Throat | University of Queensland Press |
Stella Prize[51] | Evie Wyld | The Bass Rock | Penguin Random House |
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards[52][53] | Laura Jean McKay | The Animals in That Country | Scribe |
Fiction
National
Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
---|---|---|---|
Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature[54] | Not awarded | ||
The Age Book of the Year[55] | Robbie Arnott | The Rain Heron | Text Publishing |
The Australian/Vogel Literary Award[56] | Emma Batchelor | Now That I See You | Allen & Unwin |
Barbara Jefferis Award[57] | Not awarded | ||
Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Fiction[49] | Craig Silvey | Honeybee | Allen & Unwin |
Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Debut Fiction[49] | Pip Williams | The Dictionary of Lost Words | Affirm Press |
Miles Franklin Award[58] | Amanda Lohrey | The Labyrinth | Text Publishing |
Prime Minister's Literary Awards[59] | Amanda Lohrey | The Labyrinth | Text Publishing |
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[60][61] | Kate Grenville | A Room Made of Leaves | Text Publishing |
Queensland Literary Awards[62] | Nardi Simpson | Song of the Crocodile | Hachette Australia |
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards[63][53] | Laura Jean McKay | The Animals in That Country | Scribe |
Children and Young Adult
National
Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
---|---|---|---|---|
Children's Book of the Year Award[64] | Older Readers | Davina Bell | The End of the World is Bigger than Love | Text |
Younger Readers | Kate Gordon | Aster's Good, Right Things | Riveted Press | |
Picture Book | Meg McKinlay, illus. Matt Ottley | How to Make a Bird | Walker Books | |
Early Childhood | Libby Hathorn & Lisa Hathorn-Jarman, illus. Mel Pearce | No! Never! | Lothian Books | |
Eve Pownall Award for Information Books | Pamela Freeman, illus. Liz Anelli | Dry to Dry: The Seasons of Kakadu | Walker Books | |
Nan Chauncy Award[65] | Jan Nicholls | |||
Indie Book Awards Book of the Year[49] | Children's | Amelia Mellor | The Grandest Bookshop in the World | Affirm Press |
Young Adult | Kate O'Donnell | This One is Ours | University of Queensland Press | |
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[60][61] | Children's | Amelia Mellor | The Grandest Bookshop in the World | Affirm |
Young People's | Davina Bell | The End of the World is Bigger than Love | Text | |
Queensland Literary Awards[62] | Children's | Kirli Saunders, illustrated by Dub Leffler | Bindi | Magabala Books |
Young Adult | Cath Moore | Metal Fish, Falling Snow | Text | |
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards[53] | Young Adult Fiction | Cath Moore | Metal Fish, Falling Snow | Text |
Crime and Mystery
National
Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
---|---|---|---|---|
Davitt Award[66] | Novel | Sally Hepworth | The Good Sister | Pan Macmillan |
Young adult novel | Christie Nieman | Where We Begin | Pan Macmillan | |
Children's novel | Lian Tanner | A Clue for Clara | Allen & Unwin | |
True crime | Louise Milligan | Witness: An Investigation into the Brutal Cost of Seeking Justice | Hachette Australia | |
Debut novel | Leah Swann | Sheerwater | HarperCollins | |
Readers' choice | Katherine Kovacic | The Shifting Landscape | Echo Publishing | |
Ned Kelly Award[67] | Novel | Garry Disher | Consolation | Text Publishing |
First novel | Loraine Peck | The Second Son | Penguin Books | |
True crime | Bret Christian | Stalking Claremont | HarperCollins |
Poetry
Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
---|---|---|---|
Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature[54] | Not awarded | ||
Anne Elder Award[68] | Ella Jeffery | Dead Bolt | Puncher & Wattmann |
Mary Gilmore Award[69] | Em König | Breathing Plural | Cordite |
Prime Minister's Literary Awards[59] | Stephen Edgar | The Strangest Place: New and Selected Poems | Black Pepper |
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[60][61] | Ellen van Neerven | Throat | University of Queensland Press |
Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection[62] | Ouyang Yu | Terminally Poetic | Ginninderra Press |
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards[53] | David Stavanger | Case Notes | UWA Publishing |
Drama
Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
---|---|---|---|---|
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[60][61] | Script | Laurence Billiet | Freeman | General Strike and Matchbox Pictures |
Play | Dylan Van Den Berg | Milk | The Street Theatre | |
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards[53] | Angus Cerini | Wonnangatta | Sydney Theatre Company |
Non-Fiction
Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
---|---|---|---|---|
Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature[54] | Non-Fiction | Not awarded | ||
Indie Book Awards Book of the Year[49] | Non-Fiction | Julia Baird | Phosphorescence | Random House |
Illustrated Non-Fiction | Lauren Camilleri & Sophia Kaplan | Plantopedia | Smith Street Books | |
National Biography Award[70] | Biography | Cassandra Pybus | Truganini: Journey Through the Apocalypse | Allen & Unwin |
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[60][61] | Non-Fiction | Kate Fullagar | The Warrior, the Voyager, and the Artist: Three Lives in an Age of Empire | Yale University Press |
New South Wales Premier's History Awards[71] | Australian History | Grace Karskens | People of the River: Lost worlds of early Australia | Allen & Unwin |
Community and Regional History | Matthew Colloff | Landscapes of Our Hearts: Reconciling people and environment | Thames & Hudson | |
General History | Luke Keogh | The Wardian Case: How a simple box moved plants and changed the world | The University of Chicago Press | |
Queensland Literary Awards[62] | Non-Fiction | Luke Stegemann | Amnesia Road: Landscape, violence and memory | NewSouth Publishing |
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards[53] | Non-Fiction | Paddy Manning | Body Count: How Climate Change is Killing Us | Simon & Schuster |
Deaths
- 1 May – Kate Jennings, poet and writer (died in the United States) (b. 1948)[72]
- 25 April – Valerie Parv, romance novelist (b. 1951)[73]
- 16 May – Vera Deacon, historian (b. 1926)[74]
- 16 September – Tim Thorne, poet (b. 1944)[75]
- 22 November –
- Stuart Macintyre, historian (b. 1947)[76]
- Doug MacLeod, children's writer, poet, screenwriter and playwright (b. 1959)[77]
- Babette Smith, historian (b. 1942)[76]
- 26 November – Desmond O'Grady, journalist and author (died in Rome) (b. 1929)[78]
- 26 December – Paul B. Kidd, radio broadcaster and true crime writer (b. 1945)[79]
See also
- 2021 in Australia
- 2021 in literature
- 2021 in poetry
- List of years in Australian literature
- List of years in literature
- List of Australian literary awards
References
- ^ "Amnesty by Aravind Adiga". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
- ^ "The Other Half of You by Michael Mohammed Ahmad". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
- ^ "Dropbear by Evelyn Araluen". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
- ^ "After Story by Larissa Behrendt". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
- ^ "O by Steven Carroll". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
- ^ "Scary Monsters by Michelle de Kretser". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
- ^ "Echolalia by Briohny Doyle". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
- ^ "The Magpie Wing by Max Easton". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
- ^ "The Ripping Tree by Nikki Gemmell". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
- ^ "Pushing Back by John Kinsella". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
- ^ "Love Objects by Emily Maguire". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
- ^ "The Airways by Jennifer Mills". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
- ^ "One Hundred Days by Alice Pung". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
- ^ "The Performance by Max Easton". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
- ^ "7 ½ by Christos Tsiolkas". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
- ^ "Another Day in the Colony by Chelsea Watego". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
- ^ "Girls in Boys' Cars by Felicity Castagna". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
- ^ "Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
- ^ "Rabbit, Soldier, Angel Thief by Katrina Nannestad". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
- ^ "The Enemy Within by Tim Ayliffe". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
- ^ "The Others by Mark Brandi". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
- ^ "You Had It Coming by B. M. Carroll". Austlit. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
- ^ "Ash Mountain by Helen FitzGerald". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
- ^ "Kill Your Brother by Jack Heath". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
- ^ "Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy". Austlit. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
- ^ "The Family Doctor by Debra Oswald". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
- ^ "The Deep by Kyle Perry". Austlit. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
- ^ "When You Are Mine by Michael Robotham". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
- ^ "Stasis Shuffle by Pam Brown". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
- ^ "How Decent Folk Behave by Maxine Beneba Clarke". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
- ^ "Human Looking by Andy Jackson". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
- ^ "Trigger Warning by Maria Takolander". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
- ^ "Coming of Age in the War on Terror by Randa Abdel-Fattah". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
- ^ "Power Play: Breaking Through Bias, Barriers and Boys' Clubs by Julia Banks". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
- ^ "Monsters: A reckoning by Alison Croggon". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
- ^ "Too Migrant, Too Muslim, Too Loud by Mehreen Faruqi". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
- ^ "Reset: Restoring Australia after the Pandemic Recession by Ross Garnaut". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
- ^ "With the Falling of the Dusk by Stan Grant". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
- ^ "The Most I Could Be by Dale Kent". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
- ^ "Full Circle: A search for the world that comes next by Scott Ludlam". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
- ^ "Return to Uluru by Mark McKenna". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
- ^ "Truth-Telling: History, sovereignty and the Uluru Statement by Henry Reynolds". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
- ^ "Crimes Against Nature: Capitalism and Global Heating by Jeff Sparrow". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
- ^ "The First Scientists: Deadly Inventions and Innovations from Australia's First Peoples by Corey Tutt and Blak Douglas". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
- ^ "Austlit — Melbourne Prize". Austlit. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
- ^ "Aitken wins 2021 Patrick White Award". Books+Publishing. 7 December 2021. Archived from the original on 7 December 2021. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
- ^ "ALS Gold Medal — Previous Winners". Association for the Study of Australian Literature. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
- ^ "Colin Roderick Award — Other Winners". James Cook University. 13 July 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
- ^ a b c d e ""Indie Book Awards - Winners 2021"". Australian Independent Booksellers. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
- ^ "'Eight jobs at once and no sick days': $60,000 prizes a welcome relief for young writer". www.abc.net.au. 26 April 2021. Retrieved 4 January 2024.
- ^ "Evie Wyld wins the 2021 Stella Prize". ArtsHub. 22 April 2021. Archived from the original on 22 April 2021. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
- ^ "Pandemic novel wins Australia's richest literary prize". Books+Publishing. 17 March 2021. Archived from the original on 11 April 2021. Retrieved 19 March 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f "McKay wins $100k Victorian Prize for Literature". Books+Publishing. 2 February 2021. Archived from the original on 1 February 2021. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
- ^ a b c "Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature – Past Literary Award Winners". State Library of South Australia. Retrieved 18 April 2024.
- ^ ""Robbie Arnott's Rain Heron swoops on the Age Book of the Year"". The Age, 3 September 2021. 3 September 2021. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
- ^ Steger, Jason (30 April 2021). "How truth and fiction won Emma Batchelor this year's Vogel Award". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
- ^ ""Barbara Jefferis Award"". Australian Society of Authors. Retrieved 20 January 2024.
- ^ "$60,000 Miles Franklin awarded to a novel 'soaked in sadness' that is ultimately about hope". ABC News. 15 July 2021. Archived from the original on 15 July 2021. Retrieved 15 July 2021.
- ^ a b "PMLA 2021 winners announced". Books+Publishing. 15 December 2021. Archived from the original on 14 December 2021. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
- ^ a b c d e "NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2021 winners announced". Books+Publishing. 27 April 2021. Archived from the original on 27 April 2021. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
- ^ a b c d e "'Eight jobs at once and no sick days': $60,000 prizes a welcome relief for young writer". www.abc.net.au. 26 April 2021. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
- ^ a b c d "Winners announced for 2021 Queensland Literary Awards". Queensland Government: Ministerial Media Statements. 9 September 2021. Archived from the original on 9 September 2021. Retrieved 9 September 2021.
- ^ "Pandemic novel wins Australia's richest literary prize". Books+Publishing. 17 March 2021. Archived from the original on 11 April 2021. Retrieved 19 March 2021.
- ^ "CBCA Book of the Year 2021 winners announced". Books+Publishing. 21 August 2021. Archived from the original on 20 August 2021. Retrieved 20 August 2021.
- ^ "Nicholls wins 2021 CBCA Nan Chauncy Award". Books+Publishing. 25 June 2021. Archived from the original on 25 June 2021. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
- ^ "Davitt Awards winners announced". Books+Publishing. 30 August 2021. Archived from the original on 30 August 2021. Retrieved 1 September 2021.
- ^ "Ned Kelly Awards 2021 winners announced". Books+Publishing. 26 August 2021. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
- ^ "Jeffrey wins 2020 Anne Elder Award for 'Dead Bolt'". Books+Publishing. 15 April 2021. Archived from the original on 15 April 2021. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
- ^ "Mary Gilmore Award". Association for the Study of Australian Literature. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
- ^ "National Biography Award winner's announced on ABC Sydney". ABC Radio. 5 August 2021. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
- ^ "NSW Premier's History Awards 2021 winners announced". Books+Publishing. 6 September 2021. Archived from the original on 6 September 2021. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
- ^ Haigh, Gideon (2 May 2021). "Expat writer Kate Jennings had a voice both fierce and fun". The Australian. Archived from the original on 3 May 2021. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
- ^ "Valerie Parv". Austlit. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
- ^ "Newcastle loses a legend: Vera Deacon passes away, aged 94". Newcastle Herald. 18 May 2021. Archived from the original on 18 May 2021. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
- ^ "Timothy Colin Thorne – Death Notice". The Advocate. 17 September 2021. Retrieved 19 September 2021.
- ^ a b Celebrated historians Babette Smith, Stuart Macintyre have died (subscription required)
- ^ "Vale Doug MacLeod". Books+Publishing. 1 December 2021. Archived from the original on 7 December 2021. Retrieved 22 December 2021.
- ^ Phillilps, John (28 November 2021). "Obituary: Desmond O'Grady, Australian foreign correspondent who reported on Italy for over half a century". www.italianinsider.it. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
- ^ White, Daniella (27 December 2021). "Veteran Australian radio broadcaster Paul B. Kidd dies, aged 76". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
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Years in Australian literature (1855–present)
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