# 2015 in Australian literature

This is a list of the historical events and publications of 2015 in Australian literature.

## Major publications
### Literary fiction

* Tony Birch – Ghost River
* Lisa Birman — How to Walk Away
* Geraldine Brooks – The Secret Chord
* Robyn Cadwallader — The Anchoress
* Stephen Daisley – Coming Rain
* Gregory Day – Archipelago of Souls
* Peggy Frew – Hope Farm
* Lisa Gorton – The Life of Houses
* Sally Hepworth — The Secrets of Midwives
* David Ireland — The World Repair Video Game
* Susan Johnson – The Landing
* Gail Jones – A Guide to Berlin
* Myfanwy Jones – Leap
* Mireille Juchau – The World Without Us
* Malcolm Knox – The Wonder Lover
* Amanda Lohrey – A Short History of Richard Kline
* Judy Nunn — Spirits of the Ghan
* A. S. Patrić – Black Rock White City
* Gregory David Roberts — The Mountain Shadow
* Steve Toltz – Quicksand
* Lucy Treloar – Salt Creek
* Charlotte Wood – The Natural Way of Things

### Children's and Young Adult fiction

* Nick Earls – New Boy
* John Flanagan — The Tournament at Gorlan
* Mem Fox – This & That
* Mem Fox – Nellie Belle
* Andy Griffiths – The 65-Storey Treehouse
* John Larkin — The Pause
* Maureen McCarthy – Stay With Me
* Sophie Masson – Hunter's Moon
* Gillian Mears – The Cat with the Coloured Tail
* Louis Nowra – Prince of Afghanistan
* Emily Rodda – Two Moons
* R. A. Spratt — Friday Barnes, Under Suspicion
* Lili Wilkinson – Green Valentine
* Fiona Wood – Cloudwish

### Crime and mystery

* Peter Corris – Gun Control
* Garry Disher – The Heat
* Mark Dapin – R&R
* Candice Fox – Fall
* Katherine Howell – Tell the Truth
* Adrian McKinty – Gun Street Girl
* Barry Maitland – Ash Island
* Michael Robotham – Close Your Eyes
* Emma Viskic – Resurrection Bay
* Dave Warner – Before It Breaks

### Science Fiction and Fantasy

* K. A. Bedford – Black Light
* John Birmingham
** Emergence
** Resistance
* James Bradley – Clade
* Trudi Canavan — Angel of Storms
* Isobelle Carmody – The Red Queen
* Kate Forsyth — The Beast's Garden
* Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff — Illuminae
* Jane Rawson – Formaldehyde

### Romance

* Alison Goodman — The Dark Days Club

### Poetry

* Robert Adamson – Net Needle
* David Brooks – Open House
* Clive James – Sentenced to Life
* Les Murray – Waiting for the Past

### Drama

* Matthew Whittet – Seventeen

### Biographies

* David Day – Paul Keating : The Biography
* Peter Garrett – Big Blue Sky : A Memoir
* Kate Grenville – One Life : My Mother's Story
* Erik Jensen – Acute Misfortune: The Life and Death of Adam Cullen
* Gerald Murnane – Something for the Pain : A Memoir of the Turf
* Brenda Niall – Mannix
* Magda Szubanski – Reckoning : A Memoir
* Tim Winton – Island Home : A Landscape Memoir

### Non-fiction

* Joel Deane – Catch and Kill: The Politics of Power
* Andrew Fowler – The War on Journalism: Media Moguls, Whistleblowers and the Price of Freedom
* Gideon Haigh – Certain Admissions
* Lucy Sussex – Blockbuster! : Fergus Hume and the Mystery of the Hansom Cab

## Awards and honours

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

### Lifetime achievement

| Award | Author |
| Christopher Brennan Award | Gig Ryan |
| Melbourne Prize for Literature | Chris Wallace-Crabbe |
| Patrick White Award | Joan London |

### Literary

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| ALS Gold Medal | Jennifer Maiden | Drones and Phantoms | Giramondo Publishing |
| Colin Roderick Award | Not awarded | | |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Don Watson | The Bush: Travels in the Heart of Australia | Penguin |
| Nita Kibble Literary Award | Joan London | The Golden Age | Vintage Books |
| Stella Prize | Emily Bitto | The Strays | Affirm Press |
| Victorian Prize for Literature | Alan Atkinson | The Europeans in Australia: Volume Three: Nation | NewSouth |

### Fiction
#### National

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Not awarded | | |
| The Australian/Vogel Literary Award | Murray Middleton | When There’s Nowhere Else to Run | Allen & Unwin |
| Barbara Jefferis Award | Not awarded | | |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Fiction | Sonya Hartnett | Golden Boys | Penguin |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Debut Fiction | Maxine Beneba Clarke | Foreign Soil | Hachette |
| Miles Franklin Award | Sofie Laguna | The Eye of the Sheep | Allen & Unwin |
| Prime Minister's Literary Awards | Joan London | The Golden Age | Random House |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Mark Henshaw | The Snow Kimono | Text Publishing |
| Queensland Literary Awards | Joan London | The Golden Age | Random House |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award | Rohan Wilson | To Name Those Lost | Allen & Unwin |

### Children and Young Adult
#### National

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Older Readers | Claire Zorn | The Protected | University of Queensland Press |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Younger Readers | Libby Gleeson | The Cleo Stories : The Necklace and the Present | Allen & Unwin |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Picture Book | Freya Blackwood, text Irema Kobald | My Two Blankets | Little Hare, Hardie Grant Egmont |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Early Childhood | Libby Gleeson, illus. Freya Blackwood | Go to Sleep, Jessie! | Little Hare, Hardie Grant Egmont |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Children's & YA | Judith Rossell | Withering-by-Sea | Penguin |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Children's | Catherine Norton | Crossing | Omnibus/Scholastic Australia |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Children's | Tamsin Janu | Figgy in the World | Omnibus/Scholastic Australia |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Young People's | Jaclyn Moriarty | The Cracks in the Kingdom | Pan Macmillan Australia |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award | Young Adult Fiction | Claire Zorn | The Protected | University of Queensland Press |

### Crime and Mystery
#### International

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| CWA Gold Dagger Award | Michael Robotham | Life or Death | Hachette |

#### National

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Davitt Award | Novel | Liane Moriarty | Big Little Lies | Penguin Books |
| Davitt Award | Young adult novel | Ellie Marney | Every Word | Allen & Unwin |
| Davitt Award | Children's novel | Judith Rossell | Withering-By-Sea | HarperCollins |
| Davitt Award | True crime | Caroline Overington | Last Woman Hanged | HarperCollins |
| Davitt Award | Debut novel | Christine Bongers | Intruder | Random House |
| Davitt Award | Readers' choice | Sandi Wallace | Tell Me Why | Clan Destine Press |
| Ned Kelly Award | Novel | Candice Fox | Eden | Random House |
| Ned Kelly Award | First novel | Jock Serong | Quota | Text Publishing |
| Ned Kelly Award | True crime | Helen Garner | This House of Grief: The Story of a Murder Trial | Text Publishing |
| Ned Kelly Award | Lifetime achievement | Not awarded | | |

### Science fiction

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Aurealis Award | Sf Novel | Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff | Illuminae | Allen & Unwin |
| Aurealis Award | Sf Short Story | Sean Williams | "All the Wrong Places" | Meeting Infinity (Solaris Books) |
| Aurealis Award | Fantasy Novel | Trent Jamieson | Day Boy | Text Publishing |
| Aurealis Award | Fantasy Short Story | Rowena Cory Daniels | "The Giant's Lady" | Legends 2 (Newcon Press) |
| Aurealis Award | Horror Novel | Trent Jamieson | Day Boy | Text Publishing |
| Aurealis Award | Horror Short Story | Joanne Anderton | "Bullets" | In Sunshine Bright and Darkness Deep (AHWA) |
| Aurealis Award | Young Adult Novel | Kathryn Barker | In the Skin of a Monster | Allen & Unwin |
| Aurealis Award | Young Adult Short Story | Deborah Kalin | "The Miseducation of Mara Lys" | Cherry Crow Children (Twelfth Planet Press) |
| Ditmar Award | Novel | Glenda Larke | The Lascar's Dagger | Hachette |
| Ditmar Award | Best Novella or Novelette | Sean Williams | "The Legend Trap" | Kaleidoscope (Twelfth Planet Press) |
| Ditmar Award | Best Short Story | Cat Sparks | "The Seventh Relic" | Phantazein (FableCroft Publishing) |

### Poetry

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Not awarded | | |
| Anne Elder Award | Cathy Altmann | Circumnavigation | Poetica Christi Press |
| Mary Gilmore Award | Not awarded | | |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | David Malouf | Earth Hour | University of Queensland Press |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award | Jill Jones | The Beautiful Anxiety | Puncher and Wattmann |

### Drama

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Script | Jennifer Kent | The Babadook | Causeway Films |
| Patrick White Playwrights' Award | Award | Neil Levi | Kin | Sydney Theatre Company |
| Patrick White Playwrights' Award | Fellowship | Tommy Murphy | | |

### Non-Fiction

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Non-Fiction | Not awarded | |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Non-Fiction | Don Watson | The Bush: Travels in the Heart of Australia | Penguin |
| National Biography Award | Biography | Philip Butterss | An Unsentimental Bloke: The Life and Work of C J Dennis | Wakefield Press |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Non-Fiction | Don Watson | The Bush : Travels in the Heart of Australia | Penguin |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | Australian History | Alan Atkinson | The Europeans in Australia: Volume Three: Nation | Oxford University Press |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | Community and Regional History | Babette Smith | The Luck of the Irish : How a Shipload of Convicts Survived the Wreck of the Hive to Make a New Life in Australia | Allen & Unwin |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | General History | Warwick Anderson & Ian R Mackay | Intolerant Bodies : A Short History of Autoimmunity | Johns Hopkins University Press |
| Queensland Literary Awards | Non-Fiction | Don Watson | The Bush : Travels in the Heart of Australia | Penguin |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award | Non-fiction | Alan Atkinson | The Europeans in Australia: Volume Three: Nation | Oxford University Press |

## Deaths

* 28 January — Lionel Gilbert, historian, author, and academic, (born 1924)
* 29 January — Colleen McCullough, novelist (born 1937)
* 13 February — Faith Bandler, author and civil rights activist (born 1918)
* 23 February — James Aldridge, novelist (born 1918)
* 20 March — Malcolm Fraser, politician and author (born 1930)
* 23 March — Alan Seymour, playwright (born 1927)
* 20 May — J. S. Harry, poet (born 1939)
* 29 May — Syd Harrex, poet and academic (born 1935)
* 20 August — Veronica Brady, poet and critic (born 1929)
* 4 October — Nan Hunt, children's writer who also wrote as N. L. Ray (born 1918)