# 2022 in Australian literature

This is a list of historical events and publications of Australian literature during 2022.

## Major publications
### Literary fiction

* Robbie Arnott – Limberlost
* Jessica Au – Cold Enough for Snow
* Jane Caro – The Mother
* Steven Carroll – Goodnight, Vivienne, Goodnight
* Shankari Chandran – Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens (winner, 2023 Miles Franklin Award)
* Robert Drewe – Nimblefoot
* Katerina Gibson – Women I Know (winner, 2023 Christina Stead Prize for Fiction)
* Yumna Kassab – The Lovers
* Robert Lukins – Loveland
* Fiona McFarlane – The Sun Walks Down
* Fiona Kelly McGregor – Iris
* Paddy O'Reilly – Other Houses
* Edwina Preston – Bad Art Mother
* Craig Sherborne – The Grass Hotel
* Steve Toltz – Here Goes Nothing

### Short story collections

* Mirandi Riwoe – The Burnished Sun

### Crime and mystery

* Shelley Burr – Wake
* Aoife Clifford – When We Fall
* Chris Hammer – The Tilt
* Jane Harper – Exiles
* Sally Hepworth – The Soulmate
* Katherine Kovacic – Seven Sisters
* Tracey Lien – All That's Left Unsaid
* Dervla McTiernan – The Murder Rule
* Michael Robotham – Lying Beside You
* Emma Viskic – Those Who Perish
* Greg Woodland – The Carnival is Over

### Science fiction and fantasy

* Eugen Bacon – Mage of Fools
* Grace Chan – Every Version of You
* Greg Egan – "Crisis Actors"
* Sean McMullen – Generation Nemesis
* Jane Rawson – A History of Dreams
* Angela Slatter – The Path of Thorns

### Children's and young adult fiction

* Randa Abdel-Fattah, illus. by Maxine Beneba Clarke – 11 Words for Love
* Lian Tanner – Rita’s Revenge
* Gabrielle Wang – Zadie Ma and the Dog Who Chased the Moon

### Poetry

* Adam Aitken – Revenants
* Boey Kim Cheng – The Singer and Other Poems
* Marion May Campbell – Languish
* Lionel Fogarty – Harvest Lingo
* Lisa Gorton – Mirabilia
* Sarah Holland-Batt – The Jaguar
* John Kinsella – The Ascension of Sheep, Collected Poems Volume One (1980–2005)
* Les Murray – Continuous Creation
* Rae White – Exactly As I Am

### Non-Fiction

* Alison Bashford – An Intimate History of Evolution: The Story of the Huxley Family
* Debra Dank – We Come With This Place
* Jo Dyer – Burning Down the House: Reconstructing Modern Politics
* Madonna King – L Platers:How to support your teen daughter on the road to adulthood
* Louisa Lim – Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong
* Julianne Schultz – The Idea of Australia: A search for the soul of the nation

### Memoir

* Hannah Gadsby – Ten Steps to Nanette: A memoir situation
* Anita Heiss – Am I Black Enough For You Ten Years On
* Chloe Hooper – Bedtime Story
* Anita Jacoby – Secrets Beyond the Screen
* Wendy McCarthy – Don't Be Too Polite, Girls
* Brenda Niall – My Accidental Career
* Heather Rose – Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here

## Awards and honours

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

### Lifetime achievement

| Award | Author |
| Patrick White Award | Antigone Kefala |

### Literary

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| ALS Gold Medal | Andy Jackson | Human Looking | Giramondo Publishing |
| Colin Roderick Award | Emily Bitto | Wild Abandon | Allen & Unwin |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Trent Dalton | Love Stories | Fourth Estate |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Safdar Ahmed | Still Alive: Notes from Australia’s Immigration Detention System | Twelve Panels Press |
| Stella Prize | Evelyn Araluen | Dropbear | University of Queensland Press |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Veronica Gorrie | Black and Blue: A memoir of racism and resilience | Scribe |

### Fiction

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Tara June Winch | The Yield | Penguin |
| The Age Book of the Year | Miles Allinson | In Moonland | Scribe |
| ARA Historical Novel Prize | Tom Keneally | Corporal Hitler's Pistol | Vintage |
| The Australian/Vogel Literary Award | Nell Pierce | A Place Near Eden | Allen & Unwin |
| Barbara Jefferis Award | S. L. Lim | Revenge: Murder in Three Parts | Transit Lounge Publishing |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Fiction | Charlotte McConaghy | Once There Were Wolves | Hamish Hamilton |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Debut Fiction | Lyn Yeowart | The Silent Listener | Viking |
| Miles Franklin Award | Jennifer Down | Bodies of Light | Text |
| Prime Minister's Literary Awards | Nicolas Rothwell | Red Heaven | Text |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Tony Birch | Dark as Last Night | UQP |
| Queensland Literary Awards | Michael Mohammed Ahmad | The Other Half of You | Hachette Australia |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Melisa Manning | Smokehouse | UQP |

### Children and Young Adult

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| ARA Historical Novel Prize | Children and Young Adult | Katrina Nannestad | Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief | HarperCollins |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Older Readers | Rebecca Lim | Tiger Daughter | Allen & Unwin |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Younger Readers | Shirley Marr | A Glasshouse of Stars | Puffin |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Picture Book | Claire Saxby, illus by Jess Racklyeft | Iceberg | Allen & Unwin |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Early Childhood | Andrea Rowe, illus by Hannah Sommerville | Jetty Jumping | Hardie Grant |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Eve Pownall Award for Information Books | Safdar Ahmed | Still Alive, Notes from Australia's Immigration Detention System | Twelve Panels Press |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Lifetime Achievement | Margaret Wild | | |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Children's | Katrina Nannestad | Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief | ABC Books |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Young Adult | Danielle Binks | The Monster of Her Age | Lothian |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Children's | Peter Carnavas | My Brother Ben | UQP |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Young People's | Leanne Hall | The Gaps | Text |
| Queensland Literary Awards | Children's | Kunyi June Anne McInerney | Kunyi | Magabala Books |
| Queensland Literary Awards | Young Adult | Felicity Castagna | Girls in Boys' Cars | Pan |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Young Adult Fiction | Felicity Castagna | Girls in Boys' Cars | Pan |

### Crime and Mystery
#### National

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Davitt Award | Novel | Charlotte McConaghy | Once There Were Wolves | Hamish Hamilton |
| Davitt Award | Young adult novel | Leanne Hall | The Gaps | Text Publishing |
| Davitt Award | Children's novel | Nicki Greenberg | The Detective’s Guide to Ocean Travel | Affirm Press |
| Davitt Award | Non-fiction | Kate Holden | The Winter Road: A story of legacy, land and a killing at Croppa Creek | Black Inc |
| Davitt Award | Debut novel | Jacqueline Bublitz | Before You Knew My Name | Allen & Unwin |
| Davitt Award | Readers' choice | Jacqueline Bublitz | Before You Knew My Name | Allen & Unwin |
| Ned Kelly Award | Novel | Candice Fox | The Chase | Bantam Books |
| Ned Kelly Award | First novel | Josh Kemp | Banjawarn | UWA Publishing |
| Ned Kelly Award | True crime | Debi Marshall | Banquet: The Untold Story of Adelaide's Family Murders | Vintage Books |

### Poetry

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Jodie Albiston | Fifteeners | Puncher & Wattmann |
| Anne Elder Award | Audrey Molloy | The Important Things | Gallery Press |
| Mary Gilmore Award | Jelena Dinic | In the Room with the She Wolf | Wakefield Press |
| Prime Minister's Literary Awards | Andy Jackson | Human Looking | Giramondo Publishing |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Dan Disney | accelerations & inertias | Vagabond Press |
| Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection | Pam Brown | Stasis Shuffle | Hunter |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Maria Takolander | Trigger Warning | University of Queensland Press |

### Drama

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Script | Shaun Grant | NITRAM | |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Play | Kirsty Marillier | Orange Thrower | Currency Press |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | | Dylan Van Den Berg | Milk | |

### Non-Fiction

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Non-Fiction | Helen Ennis | Olive Cotton: A Life in Photography | Fourth Estate |
| The Age Book of the Year | Non-Fiction | Bennadette Brennan | Leaping Into Waterfalls: The Enigmatic Gillian Mears | Allen & Unwin |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Non-Fiction | Trent Dalton | Love Stories | Fourth Estate |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Illustrated Non-Fiction | Amber Creswell Bell | Still Life | Thames and Hudson |
| National Biography Award | Biography | Bernadette Brennan | Leaping into Waterfalls: The Enigmatic Gillian Mears | Allen & Unwin |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Non-Fiction | Kate Holden | The Winter Road: A Story of Legacy, Land and a Killing at Croppa Creek | Black Inc. |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | Australian History | Alexis Bergantz | French Connection: Australia’s Cosmopolitan Ambitions | NewSouth Publishing |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | Community and Regional History | Kate Holden | The Winter Road: A Story of Legacy, Land, and a Killing at Croppa Creek | Black Inc. |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | General History | Mina Roces | The Filipino Migration Experience: Global Agents of Change | Cornell University Press |
| Queensland Literary Awards | Non-Fiction | Claire G. Coleman | Lies, Damned Lies | Ultimo Press |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Non-Fiction | Amani Haydar | The Mother Wound | Pan |

## Deaths

* 22 January – Craig McGregor, journalist and writer (born 1933)
* 5 February – John Bryson, writer and lawyer (born 1935)
* 1 March – Jordie Albiston, poet (born 1961)
* 8 March – Annah Faulkner, novelist (born 1949/50)
* 19 March – Alan Hopgood, playwright and screenwriter (born 1934)
* 29 April – Craig Powell, poet (born 1940)
* 2 June – Brian Matthews, literary scholar and writer (born 1936)
* 6 June – Helen Hodgman, novelist (born in Scotland) (born 1945)
* 26 June – Frank Moorhouse, writer (born 1938)
* 14 July – Clem Tisdell, economist (born 1939)
* 26 July – David Ireland, novelist and three-time winner of Miles Franklin Award (born 1927)
* 27 July – Edwin Wilson, poet, painter, scientist (born 1942)
* 3 August
** Bruce Grant, writer and journalist (born 1925)
** Evan Jones, poet and academic (born 1931)
* 12 August – Virginia Spate, art historian (born in the United Kingdom) (born 1937)
* 29 August – Craig Powell, poet and psychoanalyst (born 1940)
* 20 September – Peter Yeldham, screenwriter, playwright and novelist (born 1927)
* 8 October – Angus Trumble, art curator and historian (born 1964)
* 17 October – Dame Carmen Callil, publisher, writer and critic (died in the United Kingdom) (born 1938)
* 24 November – Margaret Hamilton, children's literature publisher and writer (born 1941)
* 2 December
** Jill Jolliffe, journalist and non-fiction writer (born 1945)
** Antigone Kefala, poet and prose-writer (born in Romania) (born 1935)
* 16 December – Robert Adamson, poet (born 1943)
* December – Wendy Jenkins, poet, editor and YA novelist (born 1952)