# 1992 in Australian literature

This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1992.

## Events

* Tim Winton won the Miles Franklin Award for Cloudstreet

## Major publications
### Novels

* Thea Astley – Vanishing Points
* Brian Castro – After China
* Helen Garner – Cosmo Cosmolino
* Peter Goldsworthy – Honk If You Are Jesus
* Marion Halligan – Lovers' Knots
* Janette Turner Hospital – The Last Magician
* Thomas Keneally – Woman of the Inner Sea
* Roger McDonald – Shearers' Motel
* Andrew McGahan – Praise
* Alex Miller – The Ancestor Game

### Children's and young adult fiction

* Pamela Allen – Belinda
* Brian Caswell – A Cage of Butterflies
* Garry Disher – The Bamboo Flute
* Anna Fienberg – Ariel, Zed and the Secret of Life
* Joanne Horniman – Sand Monkeys
* Victor Kelleher – Del-Del
* Melina Marchetta – Looking for Alibrandi

### Crime and mystery

* Peter Corris
** Beware of the Dog
** Browning, P.I.
** The Japanese Job
** Set Up
* Marele Day – The Last Tango of Dolores Delgado
* Garry Disher – Paydirt
* Kerry Greenwood – Death at Victoria Dock
* Gabrielle Lord – Whipping Boy
* Jan McKemmish – Only Lawyers Dancing

### Science fiction and fantasy

* Terry Dowling – Blue Tyson
* Greg Egan
** "The Hundred Light-Year Diary"
** Quarantine
* Sean McMullen – Call to the Edge (short stories)

### Poetry

* Beatriz Copello – Women, Souls And Shadows
* Robert Harris – Jane, Interlinear and Other Poems
* A. D. Hope – Selected Poems
* Jill Jones – The Mask and the Jagged Star
* Les Murray – Translations from the Natural World
* Elizabeth Riddell – Selected Poems
* John Tranter — The Floor of Heaven

### Drama

* Louis Nowra
** Così
** Summer of the Aliens

### Non-fiction

* Robert Adamson – Wards of the State
* Stephanie Dowrick – Intimacy and Solitude
* Sara Henderson – From Strength to Strength: An Autobiography
* A. D. Hope – Chance Encounters
* Ruth Park – A Fence Around the Cuckoo
* Donna Williams – Nobody Nowhere

## Awards and honours

* Thea Astley AO for "service to Australian literature"
* Jack Pollard OAM for "service to sport and sporting history"

### Lifetime achievement

| Award | Author |
| Christopher Brennan Award | R. A. Simpson Oodgeroo Noonuccal |
| Patrick White Award | Peter Cowan |

### Literary

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| The Age Book of the Year Award | Marion Halligan | Lovers' Knots | Heinemann |
| ALS Gold Medal | Rodney Hall | The Second Bridegroom | McPhee Gribble |
| Colin Roderick Award | Ruth Park | A Fence Around the Cuckoo | Viking |

### Fiction
#### National

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | David Malouf | The Great World | Chatto & Windus |
| The Age Book of the Year Award | Marion Halligan | Lovers' Knots | Heinemann |
| The Australian/Vogel Literary Award | Fotini Epanomitis | The Mule's Foal | Allen & Unwin |
| Miles Franklin Award | Tim Winton | Cloudstreet | Penguin Books |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Simon Leys | The Death of Napoleon | Allen & Unwin |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Brian Castro | Double-Wolf | Allen & Unwin |

### Poetry

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Vincent Buckley | Last Poems | McPhee Gribble |
| Anne Elder Award | Nicolette Stasko | Abundance | Angus & Robertson |
| Grace Leven Prize for Poetry | Kevin Hart | Dog Fox Field: Poems | Golvan Arts |
| Grace Leven Prize for Poetry | Gary Catalano | The Empire of Grass : Twenty-Eight Poems : 1983-1989 | University of Queensland Press |
| Mary Gilmore Award | Alison Croggon | This is the Stone | Penguin |

### Children and Young Adult

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Victorian Premier's Prize for Young Adult Fiction | | Eleanor Nilsson | The House Guest | Viking |

### Non-fiction

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | David Marr | Patrick White – A Life | Random House Australia |
| The Age Book of the Year Award | Ruth Park | A Fence Around the Cuckoo | Viking |

## Deaths

A list, ordered by date of death (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of deaths in 1992 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of birth.
* 28 January — Dora Birtles, novelist, short-story writer, poet and travel writer (born 1903)
* 8 February — Roland Robinson, poet, writer and collector of Australian Aboriginal myths (born 1912)
* 24 May — Beatrice Davis, Australia's first full-time book editor (born 1909)
* 19 June — Jas H. Duke, performance poet (born 1939)
* 22 October — Peter Pinney, novelist and travel writer (born 1922)
* 6 December — Mary Finnin, artist, art teacher and poet (born 1906)
* 21 December — Paul White, missionary, evangelist, radio program host and author of the Jungle Doctor Series (born 1910)