2021 in Australian literature

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]
• Miles Allinson – In Moonland
• Larissa Behrendt – After Story
• Steven Carroll – O ^[3]
• Michelle de Kretser – Scary Monsters ^[4]
• Jennifer Down – Bodies of Light
• Briohny Doyle – Echolalia ^[5]
• Max Easton – The Magpie Wing ^[6]
• Nikki Gemmell – The Ripping Tree ^[7]
• Anita Heiss – Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray: River of Dreams
• Tom Keneally – Corporal Hitler's Pistol
• John Kinsella – Pushing Back ^[8]
• Emily Maguire – Love Objects ^[9]
• Jennifer Mills – The Airways ^[10]
• Alice Pung – One Hundred Days ^[11]
• Nicolas Rothwell – Red Heaven
• Claire Thomas – The Performance ^[12]
• Christos Tsiolkas – 7 ½ ^[13]
• Michael Winkler – Grimmish

Short story collections

• Tony Birch – Dark as Last Night

Children's and young adult fiction

• Felicity Castagna – Girls in Boys' Cars ^[14]
• Sophie Gonzales – Only Mostly Devastated ^[15]
• Katrina Nannestad – Rabbit, Soldier, Angel Thief ^[16]

Crime and mystery

• Tim Ayliffe – The Enemy Within ^[17]
• Mark Brandi – The Others ^[18]
• B. M. Carroll – You Had It Coming ^[19]
• Candice Fox – The Chase
• Helen FitzGerald – Ash Mountain ^[20]
• Jack Heath – Kill Your Brother ^[21]
• Charlotte McConaghy – Once There Were Wolves ^[22]
• Debra Oswald – The Family Doctor ^[23]
• Kyle Perry – The Deep ^[24]
• Michael Robotham – When You Are Mine ^[25]

Science fiction and fantasy

• Max Barry – The 22 Murders of Madison May ^[26]
• Greg Egan – The Book of All Skies
• Shelley Parker-Chan – She Who Became the Sun
• Angela Slatter – All the Murmuring Bones ^[27]
• Janeen Webb – The Five Star Republic with Andrew Enstice ^[28]

Poetry

• Eunice Andrada – Take Care
• Evelyn Araluen – Dropbear
• Pam Brown – Stasis Shuffle ^[29]
• Maxine Beneba Clarke – How Decent Folk Behave ^[30]
• Andy Jackson – Human Looking ^[31]
• Elfie Shiosaki – Homecoming ^[32]
• Maria Takolander – Trigger Warning ^[33]

Non-fiction

• Randa Abdel-Fattah – Coming of Age in the War on Terror ^[34]
• Julia Banks – Power Play: Breaking Through Bias, Barriers and Boys' Clubs ^[35]
• Alison Croggon – Monsters: A reckoning ^[36]
• Jaivet Ealom – Escape From Manus
• Mehreen Faruqi – Too Migrant, Too Muslim, Too Loud ^[37]
• Ross Garnaut – Reset: Restoring Australia after the Pandemic Recession ^[38]
• Stan Grant – With the Falling of the Dusk ^[39]
• Dale Kent – The Most I Could Be ^[40]
• Scott Ludlam – Full Circle: A search for the world that comes next ^[41]
• Mark McKenna – Return to Uluru ^[42]
• Henry Reynolds – Truth-Telling: History, sovereignty and the Uluru Statement ^[43]
• Jeff Sparrow – Crimes Against Nature: Capitalism and Global Heating ^[44]
• Corey Tutt and Blak Douglas (illustrator) – The First Scientists: Deadly Inventions and Innovations from Australia's First Peoples ^[45]

Collected essays

• Chelsea Watego – Another Day in the Colony ^[46]

Awards and honours

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

Lifetime achievement

Award	Author
Melbourne Prize for Literature [47]	Christos Tsiolkas
Patrick White Award [48]	Adam Aitken

Literary

Award	Author	Title	Publisher
ALS Gold Medal [49]	Nardi Simpson	Song of the Crocodile	Hachette Australia
Colin Roderick Award [50]	Sofie Laguna	Infinite Splendours	Allen & Unwin
Indie Book Awards Book of the Year [51]	Pip Williams	The Dictionary of Lost Words	Affirm Press
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards [52]	Ellen van Neerven	Throat	University of Queensland Press
Stella Prize [53]	Evie Wyld	The Bass Rock	Penguin Random House
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards [54] [55] [56]	Laura Jean McKay	The Animals in That Country	Scribe

Fiction

National

Award	Author	Title	Publisher
Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature [57]	Not awarded
The Age Book of the Year [58]	Robbie Arnott	The Rain Heron	Text Publishing
ARA Historical Novel Prize [59]	Jock Serong	The Burning Island	Text Publishing
The Australian/Vogel Literary Award [60]	Emma Batchelor	Now That I See You	Allen & Unwin
Barbara Jefferis Award [61]	Not awarded
Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Fiction [51]	Craig Silvey	Honeybee	Allen & Unwin
Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Debut Fiction [51]	Pip Williams	The Dictionary of Lost Words	Affirm Press
Miles Franklin Award [62]	Amanda Lohrey	The Labyrinth	Text Publishing
Prime Minister's Literary Awards [63]	Amanda Lohrey	The Labyrinth	Text Publishing
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards [64] [65]	Kate Grenville	A Room Made of Leaves	Text Publishing
Queensland Literary Awards [66]	Nardi Simpson	Song of the Crocodile	Hachette Australia
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards [54] [55] [56]	Laura Jean McKay	The Animals in That Country	Scribe
Voss Literary Prize [67]	Amanda Lohrey	The Labyrinth	Text Publishing

Children and Young Adult

National

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
ARA Historical Novel Prize [59]	Children and Young Adult	Katrina Nannestad	We are Wolves	ABC Books
Children's Book of the Year Award [68]	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 [69]	Jan Nicholls
Indie Book Awards Book of the Year [51]	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 [64] [65]	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 [66]	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 [54] [56]	Young Adult Fiction	Cath Moore	Metal Fish, Falling Snow	Text

Crime and Mystery

National

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
Davitt Award [70]	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	Hachette Australia
	Debut novel	Leah Swann	Sheerwater	HarperCollins
	Readers' choice	Katherine Kovacic	The Shifting Landscape	Echo Publishing
Ned Kelly Award [71]	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 [57]	Not awarded
Anne Elder Award [72]	Ella Jeffery	Dead Bolt	Puncher & Wattmann
Mary Gilmore Award [73]	Em König	Breathing Plural	Cordite
Prime Minister's Literary Awards [63]	Stephen Edgar	The Strangest Place: New and Selected Poems	Black Pepper
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards [64] [65]	Ellen van Neerven	Throat	University of Queensland Press
Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection [66]	Ouyang Yu	Terminally Poetic	Ginninderra Press
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards [54] [56]	David Stavanger	Case Notes	UWA Publishing

Drama

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards [64] [65]	Script	Laurence Billiet	Freeman	General Strike and Matchbox Pictures
	Play	Dylan Van Den Berg	Milk	The Street Theatre
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards [56]		Angus Cerini	Wonnangatta	Sydney Theatre Company

Non-Fiction

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature [57]	Non-Fiction	Not awarded
Indie Book Awards Book of the Year [51]	Non-Fiction	Julia Baird	Phosphorescence	Random House
	Illustrated Non-Fiction	Lauren Camilleri & Sophia Kaplan	Plantopedia	Smith Street Books
National Biography Award [74]	Biography	Cassandra Pybus	Truganini: Journey Through the Apocalypse	Allen & Unwin
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards [64] [65]	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 [75]	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 [66]	Non-Fiction	Luke Stegemann	Amnesia Road: Landscape, violence and memory	NewSouth Publishing
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards [54] [56]	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) ^[76]
• 25 April – Valerie Parv, romance novelist (b. 1951) ^[77]
• 16 May – Vera Deacon, historian (b. 1926) ^[78]
• 16 September – Tim Thorne, poet (b. 1944) ^[79]
• 22 November –
  • Stuart Macintyre, historian (b. 1947) ^[80]
  • Doug MacLeod, children's writer, poet, screenwriter and playwright (b. 1959) ^[81]
  • Babette Smith, historian (b. 1942) ^[80]
• 26 November – Desmond O'Grady, journalist and author (died in Rome) (b. 1929) ^[82]
• 26 December – Paul B. Kidd, radio broadcaster and true crime writer (b. 1945) ^[83]

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

1. "Amnesty by Aravind Adiga". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
2. "The Other Half of You by Michael Mohammed Ahmad". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
3. "O by Steven Carroll". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
4. "Scary Monsters by Michelle de Kretser". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
5. "Echolalia by Briohny Doyle". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
6. "The Magpie Wing by Max Easton". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
7. "The Ripping Tree by Nikki Gemmell". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
8. "Pushing Back by John Kinsella". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
9. "Love Objects by Emily Maguire". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
10. "The Airways by Jennifer Mills". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
11. "One Hundred Days by Alice Pung". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
12. "The Performance by Max Easton". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
13. "7 ½ by Christos Tsiolkas". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
14. "Girls in Boys' Cars by Felicity Castagna". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
15. "Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
16. "Rabbit, Soldier, Angel Thief by Katrina Nannestad". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
17. "The Enemy Within by Tim Ayliffe". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
18. "The Others by Mark Brandi". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
19. "You Had It Coming by B. M. Carroll". Austlit. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
20. "Ash Mountain by Helen FitzGerald". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
21. "Kill Your Brother by Jack Heath". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
22. "Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy". Austlit. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
23. "The Family Doctor by Debra Oswald". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
24. "The Deep by Kyle Perry". Austlit. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
25. "When You Are Mine by Michael Robotham". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
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28. "The Five Star Republic by Janeen Webb and Andrew Enstice". ISFDB. Retrieved 27 May 2025.
29. "Stasis Shuffle by Pam Brown". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
30. "How Decent Folk Behave by Maxine Beneba Clarke". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
31. "Human Looking by Andy Jackson". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
32. "Homecoming by Elfie Shiosaki". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 29 January 2025.
33. "Trigger Warning by Maria Takolander". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
34. "Coming of Age in the War on Terror by Randa Abdel-Fattah". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
35. "Power Play: Breaking Through Bias, Barriers and Boys' Clubs by Julia Banks". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
36. "Monsters: A reckoning by Alison Croggon". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
37. "Too Migrant, Too Muslim, Too Loud by Mehreen Faruqi". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
38. "Reset: Restoring Australia after the Pandemic Recession by Ross Garnaut". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
39. "With the Falling of the Dusk by Stan Grant". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
40. "The Most I Could Be by Dale Kent". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
41. "Full Circle: A search for the world that comes next by Scott Ludlam". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
42. "Return to Uluru by Mark McKenna". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
43. "Truth-Telling: History, sovereignty and the Uluru Statement by Henry Reynolds". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
44. "Crimes Against Nature: Capitalism and Global Heating by Jeff Sparrow". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
45. "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.
46. "Another Day in the Colony by Chelsea Watego". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
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