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 ^[1]
• Trent Dalton – Boy Swallows Universe
• Gregory Day – A Sand Archive ^[2]
• Ceridwen Dovey – In the Garden of the Fugitives ^[3]
• Rodney Hall – A Stolen Season ^[4]
• Gail Jones – The Death of Noah Glass
• Eleanor Limprecht – The Passengers ^[5]
• Melissa Lucashenko – Too Much Lip
• Heather Morris – The Tattooist of Auschwitz
• Kristina Olsson – Shell ^[6]
• Ryan O'Neill – The Drover's Wives ^[7]
• Kim Scott – Taboo ^[8]
• Tim Winton – The Shepherd's Hut ^[9]
• Markus Zusak – Bridge of Clay

Children's and Young Adult fiction

• Maxine Beneba Clarke – Wide Big World, illustrated by Isobel Knowles ^[10]
• Mem Fox – Bonnie and Ben Rhyme Again , illustrated by Judy Horacek ^[11]
• Andy Griffiths – The 104-Storey Treehouse ^[12]
• Ambelin Kwaymullina and Ezekial Kwaymullina – Catching Teller Crow ^[13]
• Richard Roxburgh – Artie and the Grime Wave ^[14]
• Shaun Tan
  • Cicada ^[15]
  • Tales from the Inner City ^[16]
• Lili Wilkinson – After the Lights Go Out ^[17]

Crime and Mystery

• Garry Disher – Kill Shot ^[18]
• Candice Fox – Redemption Point ^[19]
• Kerry Greenwood – The Spotted Dog ^[20]
• Chris Hammer – Scrublands
• Jane Harper – The Lost Man
• Dervla McTiernan – The Rúin
• Kate Morton – The Clockmaker's Daughter ^[21]
• Michael Robotham – The Other Wife ^[22]
• Sue Williams – Live and Let Fry ^[23]

Science Fiction and Fantasy

• Alan Baxter
  • Hidden City ^[24]
  • Devouring Dark ^[25]
• Kylie Chan – Scales of Empire ^[26]
• Traci Harding – This Present Past ^[27]
• Jennifer Mills – Dyschronia ^[28]
• Kaaron Warren – Tide of Stone ^[29]

Poetry

• Jordie Albiston – Warlines ^[30]
• Judith Beveridge – Sun Music: New and Selected Poems ^[31]
• Ken Bolton – Starting at Basheer's ^[32]
• Sarah Day – Towards Light & Other Poems ^[33]
• Paul Hetherington – Moonlight on Oleander ^[34]
• Bella Li – Lost Lake ^[35]
• John Mateer – João ^[36]
• Tim Metcalf – The Underwritten Plain ^[37]
• Tracy Ryan – The Water Bearer ^[38]

Drama

• Alana Valentine – The Sugar House ^[39]

Biographies and memoirs

• Peter FitzSimons – Monash's Masterpiece ^[40]
• Jacqui Lambie – Rebel with a Cause: You can't keep a bloody Lambie down — my story from soldier to senator and beyond ^[41]
• Vicki Laveau-Harvie – The Erratics ^[42]
• Bri Lee – Eggshell Skull
• Anne Summers – Unfettered and Alive: A Memoir ^[43]
• Gillian Triggs – Speaking Up ^[44]
• Nadia Wheatley – Her Mother's Daughter ^[45]

Non-fiction

• Cynthia Banham – A Certain Light ^[46]
• Steve Biddulph – Raising Boys In The Twenty-First Century: How To Help Our Boys Become Open-Hearted, Kind And Strong Men ^[47]
• Behrouz Boochani – No Friend But the Mountains
• Stephen Gapps – The Sydney Wars: Conflict in the Early Colony 1788–1817 ^[48]
• Richard Glover – The Land Before Avocado ^[49]
• Billy Griffiths – Deep Time Dreaming ^[50]
• Anita Heiss (editor) – Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia ^[51]
• Chloe Hooper – The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire ^[52]
• Thomas Keneally – Australians: A Short History ^[53]
• Meredith Lake – The Bible in Australia: A cultural history ^[54]
• Michael C. Madden – The Victoria Cross: Australia Remembers ^[55]
• Leigh Sales – Any Ordinary Day ^[56]

Awards and honours

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

Lifetime achievement

Award	Author
Melbourne Prize for Literature [57]	Alison Lester
Patrick White Award [58]	Samuel Wagan Watson

Literary

Award	Author	Title	Publisher
ALS Gold Medal [59]	Shastra Deo	The Agonist	University of Queensland Press
Colin Roderick Award [60]	Jock Serong	On the Java Ridge	Text Publishing
Indie Book Awards Book of the Year [61]	Jessica Townsend	Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow	Lothian
Nita Kibble Literary Award [62]	Fiona McFarlane	The High Places	Hodder and Stoughton
Stella Prize [63]	Alexis Wright	Tracker	Giramondo
Victorian Prize for Literature [64]	Sarah Krasnostein	The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman's Extraordinary Life in Death, Decay & Disaster	Text Publishing

Fiction

International

Award	Author	Title	Publisher
Staunch Book Prize [65]	Jock Serong	On the Java Ridge	Text Publishing

National

Award	Author	Title	Publisher
Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature [66]	Eva Hornung	The Last Garden	Text Publishing
The Australian/Vogel Literary Award [67]	Emily O'Grady	The Yellow House	Allen & Unwin
Barbara Jefferis Award [68]	Libby Angel	The Trapeze Act	Text Publishing
Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Fiction [61]	Sofie Laguna	The Choke	Allen & Unwin
Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Debut Fiction [61]	Mark Brandi	Wimmera	Hachette Australia
Miles Franklin Award [69] [70]	Michelle de Kretser	The Life to Come	Allen & Unwin
Prime Minister's Literary Awards [71]	Gerald Murnane	Border Districts	Giramondo
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards [72]	Bram Presser	The Book of Dirt	Text Publishing
Queensland Literary Awards [73]	Kim Scott	Taboo	Pan Macmillan
Victorian Premier's Literary Award [74]	Melanie Cheng	Australia Day	Text Publishing

Children and Young Adult

National

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
Children's Book of the Year Award [75]	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
Indie Book Awards Book of the Year [61]	Children's	Jessica Townsend	Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow	Lothian
	Young Adult	Mark Smith	Wilder Country	Text Publishing
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards [72]	Children's	Bren MacDibble	How to Bee	Allen & Unwin
	Young People's	Zana Fraillon	The Ones That Disappeared	Lothian
Victorian Premier's Literary Award [74]	Young Adult Fiction	Demet Divaroren	Living on Hope Street	Allen & Unwin

Crime and Mystery

National

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
Davitt Award [76]	Novel	Emma Viskic	And Fire Came Down	Echo Books
	Young adult novel	Vikki Wakefield	Ballad for a Mad Girl	Text Publishing
	Children's novel	Allison Rushby	The Turnkey	Walker Books
	True crime	Gabriella Coslovich	Whitely on Trial	Melbourne University Press
	Debut novel	Sarah Bailey	The Dark Lake	Allen & Unwin
	Readers' choice	Jane Harper	Force of Nature	Pan Macmillan
Ned Kelly Award [77]	Novel	Sulari Gentill	Crossing the Lines	Pantera
	First novel	Sarah Bailey	The Dark Lake	Allen & Unwin
	True crime	Graham Archer	Unmaking a Murder: The Mysterious Death of Anna-Jane Cheney	Random House
	Lifetime achievement	Garry Disher

Science fiction

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
Ditmar Award [78]	Novel	Thoraiya Dyer	Crossroads of Canopy	Tor
	Best Novella or Novelette	Tansy 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)

Poetry

Award	Author	Title	Publisher
Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature [66]	Pam Brown	Missing Up	Vagabond Press
Anne Elder Award [79]	Rico Craig	Bone Ink	Guillotine Press
Mary Gilmore Award [80]	Quinn Eades	Rallying	UWA Publishing
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards [72]	Bella Li	Argosy	Vagabond Press
Victorian Premier's Literary Award [74]	Bella Li	Argosy	Vagabond Press

Drama

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards [72]	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

Non-Fiction

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature [66]	Non-Fiction	Tim Winton	The Boy Behind the Curtain	Penguin Books
Indie Book Awards Book of the Year [61]	Non-Fiction	Richard Fidler & Kári Gíslason	Saga Land	HarperCollins
	Illustrated Non-Fiction	Kate Herd & Jela Ivankovic-Waters	Native: Art & Design with Australian Plants	Thames & hudson
National Biography Award [81]	Biography	Judith Brett	The Enigmatic Mr Deakin	Text Publishing
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards [72]	Non-Fiction	Paul Ham	Passchendaele: Requiem for Doomed Youth	William Heinemann Australia
New South Wales Premier's History Awards [82]	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 [73]	Non-Fiction	Alexis Wright	Tracker	Giramondo Publishing
Victorian Premier's Literary Award [74]	Non-fiction	Sarah Krasnostein	The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman's Extraordinary Life in Death, Decay & Disaster	Text Publishing

Deaths

• 6 March – Peter Nicholls, writer and editor of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (born 1939) ^[83]
• 8 March – Peter Temple, author of Jack Irish series (born 1946) ^[84]
• 3 April – Noela Young, children's book illustrator and writer (born 1930) ^{[85] [86]}
• 14 April – Frank Bren, Australian actor and playwright (born 1943) ^[87]
• 16 April – Beverley Farmer, novelist and short story writer (born 1941) ^[88]
• 1 June – Jill Ker Conway, academic and memoir writer, author of The Road from Coorain (born 1934) ^[89]
• 2 June – Tony Morphett, screenwriter and novelist (born 1938) ^[90]
• 30 August – Peter Corris, crime novelist (born 1942) ^[91]
• 31 August – Ian Jones author and television writer and director (born 1931) ^[92]
• 12 September – Albert Ullin OAM , German Australian children's bookseller and founder of Australia's first children's bookstore, The Little Bookroom (born 1930) ^[93]
• 16 September – John Molony, historian and Emeritus Professor of History at Australian National University (born 1927) ^[94]
• 6 October – James Cowan, author (born 1942) ^[95]
• 21 October – Eleanor Witcombe, screenwriter and playwright (born 1923) ^[96]
• 22 October
  • Anne Fairbairn, poet, journalist and expert in Arab culture (born 1928) ^[97]
  • Rose Zwi, novelist (born 1928) ^[98]
• 22 November – Judith Rodriguez, poet and academic (born 1936) ^[99]

See also

• 2018 in Australia
• 2018 in literature
• 2018 in poetry
• List of years in Australian literature
• List of years in literature

References

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56. "Any Ordinary Day by Leigh Sales". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
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