# 1995 in Australian literature

This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1995.

## Events

* Helen Demidenko won the Miles Franklin Award for The Hand That Signed the Paper

## Major publications
### Novels

* Carmel Bird – The White Garden
* Marshall Browne – The Gilded Cage
* Bryce Courtenay — The Potato Factory
* Beverley Farmer — The House in the Light
* Judith Fox – Bracelet Honeymyrtle
* Paul Horsfall – The Touchstone
* Rod Jones — Billy Sunday
* Thomas Keneally — A River Town
* Christopher Koch — Highways to a War
* Amanda Lohrey – Camille's Bread
* Alex Miller — The Sitters
* Mandy Sayer — The Cross
* Kathleen Stewart — Spilt Milk

### Crime and mystery

* Jon Cleary – Winter Chill
* John Dale — Dark Angel
* Garry Disher – Port Vila Blues
* Kerry Greenwood – Ruddy Gore
* Gabrielle Lord – Bones
* Barry Maitland — The Malcontenta

### Science fiction and fantasy

* David Brooks (author) — The House of Balthus
* Jack Dann — The Memory Cathedral: A Secret History of Leonardo da Vinci
* Sara Douglass — Battleaxe
* Greg Egan
** Axiomatic
** Distress
** "Luminous"
** "Mitochondrial Eve"
** "TAP"
** "Wang's Carpets"
* Paul Kidd — Mus of Kerbridge
* Garth Nix — Sabriel
* Gillian Rubinstein — Galax-Arena
* Tony Shillitoe — The Last Wizard

### Children's and young adult fiction

* Isobelle Carmody — Ashling
* Brian Caswell — Deucalion
* Mem Fox — Wombat Divine
* Sonya Hartnett — Sleeping Dogs
* Catherine Jinks — Witch Bank
* John Marsden — The Third Day, The Frost
* Garth Nix — Sabriel

### Poetry

* Jordie Albiston — Nervous Arcs
* Peter Bakowski — In The Human Night
* Dorothy Hewett — Collected Poems 1940–1995
* Philip Hodgins — Things Happen

### Drama

* Manny Aston — Fossils
* Joanna Murray-Smith — Honour
* Louis Nowra
** The Incorruptible
** Miss Bosnia
* David Williamson — Dead White Males

### Non-fiction

* Timothy Conigrave — Holding the Man
* Garfield Barwick — A Radical Tory: Garfield Barwick's Reflections and Recollections
* Helen Garner — The First Stone

## Awards and honours

* Christopher Koch AO "for service to Australian literature as a novelist"
* Alexander Stewart Cockburn AM "for service to journalism and literature"
* Bryce Courtenay AM "for service to advertising and marketing to the community and as an author"
* Mollie Gillen AM "for service to genealogy and to Australian historical research"
* Paul Jennings AM "for service to children's literature"
* Frances Margaret McGuire AM "for service to the community and to literature, particularly through the State Library of South Australia"
* Walter Richard McVitty AM "for service to the arts, particularly as educator and publisher of children's literature"
* Maurice Saxby AM "for service to children's literature"
* Gavin Souter AM "for service to Australian historical literature"
* Donald Wall AM "for service to the recorded history of World war II, particularly the history of the 8th Division and the fate of prisoners of war at Sandakan, Northern Borneo"
* Madeleine Ruby Irene Brunato-Arthur OAM "for service to Australian writers, particularly through the Fellowship of Australian Writers in South Australia"

### Lifetime achievement

| Award | Author |
| Christopher Brennan Award | Thomas Shapcott Robert Adamson |
| Patrick White Award | Elizabeth Riddell |

### Literary

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| The Age Book of the Year Award | Chris Wallace-Crabbe | Selected Poems 1956–1994 | Oxford University Press |
| ALS Gold Medal | Helen Demidenko | The Hand That Signed the Paper | Allen & Unwin |
| Colin Roderick Award | Judy Cassab | Diaries | Random House |
| Nita Kibble Literary Award | Drusilla Modjeska | The Orchard | Pan Macmillan |

### Fiction
#### International

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Commonwealth Writers' Prize | Best Novel, SE Asia and South Pacific region | Tim Winton | The Riders | Pan Macmillan |
| Commonwealth Writers' Prize | Best First Novel, SE Asia and South Pacific region | Adib Khan | Seasonal Adjustments | Allen & Unwin |
| Commonwealth Writers' Prize | Best Overall First Novel | Adib Khan | Seasonal Adjustments | Allen & Unwin |

#### National

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Not awarded | | |
| The Age Book of the Year Award | Rod Jones | Billy Sunday | Picador |
| The Australian/Vogel Literary Award | Richard King | Kindling Does for Firewood | Allen and Unwin |
| Miles Franklin Award | Helen Demidenko | The Hand That Signed the Paper | Allen and Unwin |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Lily Brett | Just Like That | Pan Macmillan |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Kate Grenville | Dark Places | Macmillan |

### Poetry

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Not awarded | | |
| The Age Book of the Year Award | Chris Wallace-Crabbe | Selected Poems 1956–1994 | Oxford University Press |
| Anne Elder Award | Jennifer Harrison | Michelangelo's Prisoners | Black Pepper Press |
| Grace Leven Prize for Poetry | Kevin Hart | New and Selected Poems | Angus and Robertson |
| Grace Leven Prize for Poetry | Rhyll McMaster | Flying the Coop : New and Selected Poems 1972–1994 | Heinemann |
| Grace Leven Prize for Poetry | Jemal Sharah | Path of Ghosts: Poems 1986–93 | Heinemann |
| Mary Gilmore Award | Aileen Kelly | Coming Up for Light | Pariah Press |

### Children and Young Adult

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Victorian Premier's Prize for Young Adult Fiction | | Allan Baillie | Songman | Viking Books |

### Non-fiction

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Not awarded | | |
| The Age Book of the Year Award | Tim Flannery | The Future Eaters | New Holland Publishers |

## Deaths

A list, ordered by date of death (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of deaths in 1995 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of birth.
* 13 January — Max Harris (poet), poet, critic, columnist, commentator, publisher and bookseller (born 1921)
* 25 January — Margaret Senior, wildlife and children's illustrator and writer (born 1917 in London)
* 20 March — Russell Braddon, writer of novels, biographies and TV scripts (born 1921)
* 12 May — John Blight, poet (born 1913)
* 26 June — John Jefferson Bray, lawyer, judge, academic, university administrator, Crown officer and published poet, (born 1912)
* 17 July — Robert Close, novelist (died in Majorca, Spain)(born 1903)
* 7 August — Harold Stewart, poet and oriental scholar (died in Kyoto, Japan)(born 1916)
* 14 August — Frances Margaret McGuire, writer, biochemist and philanthropist (born 1900)
* 18 August — Philip Hodgins, poet (born 1959)
* 5 December — Gwen Harwood, poet and librettist (born 1920)