# 1988 in Australian literature

This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1988.

## Events

* Peter Carey won the 1988 Booker Prize for Oscar and Lucinda
* The Miles Franklin Award was not awarded this year as the date was changed from year of publication to year of announcement.

## Major publications
### Novels

* Peter Carey — Oscar and Lucinda
* Liam Davison — The Velodrome
* Rodney Hall — Captivity Captive
* Dorothy Johnston — Maralinga, My Love
* Thomas Keneally — Act of Grace
* Alex Miller — Watching the Climbers on the Mountain
* Gerald Murnane — Inland
* Morris West — Masterclass
* Tim Winton — In the Winter Dark

### Short stories

* Olga Masters — The Rose Fancier
* Frank Moorhouse — Forty-Seventeen

### Children's and young adult fiction

* Graeme Base — The Eleventh Hour
* Hesba Fay Brinsmead — When You Come to the Ferry
* Caroline MacDonald — The Lake at the End of the World
* P. L. Travers — Mary Poppins and the House Next Door
* Gillian Rubinstein — Beyond the Labyrinth
* Tim Winton — Jesse

### Crime fiction

* Jon Cleary — Now and Then, Amen
* Marele Day — The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender (first in the Claudia Valentine series)

### Poetry

* Gwen Harwood — Bone Scan
* Judith Rodriguez — The House by Water: New and Selected Poems
* John Tranter — Under Berlin

### Drama

* Andrew Bovell — After Dinner
* Jan Cornall — Escape from a Better Place

### Non-fiction

* Tom Cole — Hell West and Crooked
* Peter Conrad — Down Home: Revisiting Tasmania
* Laurie Hergenhan (editor) — The Penguin New Literary History of Australia
* Eric Rolls — A Million Wild Acres
* Dale Spender — Writing a New World: Two Centuries of Australian Women Writers

## Awards and honours

* Dorothy Auchterlonie Green AO, for "service to Australian literature, particularly as a writer, critic and teacher"
* Elizabeth Jolley AO, for "service to Australian literature"
* Rosemary Wighton AO, for "public service, to literature and to the community"
* Tom Hungerford AM, for "service to literature"
* David Martin (poet) AM, for "service to Australian literature"
* Gavin Souter AM, for "service to literature and journalism"
* Len Beadell OAM, for "service to the Public service and to literature"

### Lifetime achievement

| Award | Author |
| Christopher Brennan Award | Roland Robinson |
| Patrick White Award | Roland Robinson |

### Literary

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| The Age Book of the Year Award | Frank Moorhouse | Forty-Seventeen | Viking |
| ALS Gold Medal | Brian Matthews | Louisa | McPhee Gribble |
| Colin Roderick Award | Peter Carey | Oscar and Lucinda | Hyland House |

### Fiction
#### International

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Booker Prize | | Peter Carey | Oscar and Lucinda | University of Queensland Press |
| Commonwealth Writers' Prize | Best Novel, SE Asia and South Pacific region | George Turner | The Sea and Summer | Faber & Faber |

#### National

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Rod Jones | Julia Paradise | McPhee Gribble |
| The Age Book of the Year Award | Frank Moorhouse | Forty-Seventeen | Viking |
| The Australian/Vogel Literary Award | Tom Flood | Oceana Fine | Allen and Unwin |
| Miles Franklin Award | Not awarded | | |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | John Sligo | Final Things | Penguin Books Australia |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Murray Bail | Holden's Performance | Viking |

### Poetry

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Les Murray | The Daylight Moon | Angus & Robertson |
| Anne Elder Award | Alex Skovron | The Rearrangement | Melbourne University Press |
| Grace Leven Prize for Poetry | John Tranter | Under Berlin | University of Queensland Press |
| Mary Gilmore Award | Judith Beveridge | The Domesticity of Giraffes | Black Lightning Press |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Judith Beveridge | The Domesticity of Giraffes | Black Lightning Press |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Judith Beveridge | The Domesticity of Giraffes | Black Lightning Press |

### Children and Young Adult

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Older Readers | John Marsden | So Much to Tell You | Walter McVitty Books |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Picture Book | Bob Graham | Crusher is Coming! | Lothian Books |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Young People's Literature | Gillian Rubinstein | Answers to Brut | Omnibus Books |
| Victorian Premier's Prize for Young Adult Fiction | | John Marsden | So Much to Tell You | Walter McVitty Books |

### Drama

| Award | Category | Author | Title |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Film Script | Laura Jones | High Tide |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Radio Script | Keith Gallasch and Virginia Baxter | Australia-Japan: A Love Story |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Television Script | Anthony Wheeler | Olive |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Play | Alma De Groen | The Rivers of China |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Drama | Alma De Groen | The Rivers of China |

### Non-fiction

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Trevor Wilson | The Myriad Faces of War | Polity/Blackwells |
| The Age Book of the Year Award | Robin Gerster | Big-Noting : The Heroic Theme in Australian War Writing | Melbourne University Press |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Brian Matthews | Louisa | McPhee Gribble |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Brian Matthews | Louisa | McPhee Gribble |

## Deaths

A list, ordered by date of death (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of deaths in 1988 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of birth.
* 4 January — Alice Duncan-Kemp, writer and Indigenous rights activist (born 1901)
* 28 February — Kylie Tennant, novelist, playwright, short-story writer, critic, biographer and historian (born 1912)
* 31 July — Stephen Murray-Smith, writer, editor and educator (born 1922)
* 12 November — Vincent Buckley, poet, teacher, editor, essayist and critic (born 1925)