# 1993 in Australian literature

This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1993.

## Events

* Alex Miller (writer) won the Miles Franklin Award for The Ancestor Game

## Major publications
### Novels

* Bryce Courtenay — April Fool's Day
* Liam Davison – Soundings
* Fotini Epanomitis – The Mule's Foal
* Rodney Hall — The Grisly Wife
* Dorothy Hewett — The Toucher
* Elizabeth Jolley — The Georges' Wife
* Thomas Keneally – Jacko
* David Malouf — Remembering Babylon
* Roger McDonald — Water Man
* Frank Moorhouse — Grand Days
* Madeleine St John — The Women in Black
* Morris West — The Lovers

### Crime and mystery

* Jon Cleary – Bleak Spring
* Peter Corris
** Browning Battles On
** Cross Off
** Matrimonial Causes
* Garry Disher – Deathdeal
* Jennifer Rowe – Stranglehold
* Kerry Greenwood – The Green Mill Murder

### Science fiction and fantasy

* Terry Dowling – Twilight Beach
* Terry Dowling and Van Ikin – Mortal Fire: Best Australian Science Fiction (editors)
* Greg Egan
** "Chaff"
** "Transition Dreams"
* Rosaleen Love – Evolution Annie: And Other Stories
* George Turner – The Destiny Makers

### Children's and young adult fiction

* Isobelle Carmody — The Gathering
* Carmel Charles — Winin: Why the Emu Cannot Fly
* Morris Gleitzman — Sticky Beak
* John Marsden — Tomorrow, When the War Began
* James Moloney – Dougy
* Dorothy Porter — The Witch Number
* Emily Rodda – Roan of Rin
* Tim Winton – Lockie Leonard, Scumbuster

### Poetry

* Robert Gray — Certain Things
* Barry Hill — Ghosting William Buckley
* Philip Hodgins — The End of the Season
* Jill Jones — Flagging Down Time
* Jennifer Maiden — Acoustic Shadow
* Jan Owen — Blackberry Season
* John Tranter — At the Florida

### Drama

* Louis Nowra — Radiance

### Non-fiction

* Verity Burgmann — Power and Protest: Movements for Change in Australian Society
* Hazel Rowley — Christina Stead: A Biography
* Peter Singer — How Are We to Live?

## Awards and honours
### Lifetime achievement

| Award | Author |
| Christopher Brennan Award | Geoffrey Dutton |
| Patrick White Award | Amy Witting |

### Literary

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| The Age Book of the Year Award | Elizabeth Jolley | The Georges' Wife | Viking |
| ALS Gold Medal | Elizabeth Riddell | Selected Poems | Angus and Robertson |
| Colin Roderick Award | Cassandra Pybus | Gross Moral Turpitude: The Orr Case Reconsidered | Heinemann |

### Fiction
#### International

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Commonwealth Writers' Prize | Best Novel, SE Asia and South Pacific region | Alex Miller | The Ancestor Game | Penguin Books |
| Commonwealth Writers' Prize | Best First Novel, SE Asia and South Pacific region | Andrew McGahan | Praise | Allen & Unwin |
| Commonwealth Writers' Prize | Best Overall Novel | Alex Miller | The Ancestor Game | Penguin Books |

#### National

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Not awarded | | |
| The Age Book of the Year Award | Elizabeth Jolley | The Georges' Wife | Viking |
| The Australian/Vogel Literary Award | Helen Demidenko | The Hand That Signed the Paper | Allen and Unwin |
| Miles Franklin Award | Alex Miller | The Ancestor Game | Penguin Books |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | David Malouf | Remembering Babylon | Random House Australia |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Brian Castro | After China | Allen & Unwin |

### Poetry

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Not awarded | | |
| The Age Book of the Year Award | John Tranter | At the Florida | University of Queensland Press |
| Anne Elder Award | Terry Whitebeach | Bird Dream | in Four New Poets Penguin |
| Grace Leven Prize for Poetry | Philip Hodgins | The End of the Season : Pastoral Poems | Brindabella Press |
| Mary Gilmore Award | Jill Jones | The Mask and Jagged Star | Hazard Press |

### Children and Young Adult

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Victorian Premier's Prize for Young Adult Fiction | | Anna Fienberg | Ariel, Zed and the Secret of Life | Allen and Unwin |

### Non-fiction

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Not awarded | | |
| The Age Book of the Year Award | Janet McCalman | Journeyings: the Biography of a Middle-Class Generation 1920-1990 | Melbourne University Press |

## Deaths

A list, ordered by date of death (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of deaths in 1993 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of birth.
* 9 January — Paul Hasluck, statesman, poet, biographer and writer on politics (born 1905)
* 19 January — Nancy Keesing, poet, writer, editor and promoter of Australian literature (born 1923)
* 4 February — Leonard Frank Meares, writer of western fiction (born 1921)
* 1 March — Ronald McCuaig, poet, journalist, literary critic, humourist and children's author (born 1908)
* 23 March — Robert Harris, poet (born 1951)
* 1 April — Kevin Gilbert, author, activist, artist, poet, playwright and printmaker (born 1933)
* 12 April — Alexander Turner, poet, playwright, and theatre and radio producer (born 1907)
* 22 April — Margaret Diesendorf, linguist, poet, editor, translator and educationist (born 1912 Vienna, Austria)
* 18 June — Alexandra Hasluck, historian (born 1908)
* 1 July – Eric Irvin, historian and poet (born 1908)
* 25 August — Florence James, author and literary agent (born 1902)
* 16 September — Oodgeroo Noonuccal, poet, political activist, artist and educator (born 1920)