# 2007 in Australian literature

This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 2007.

## Events

* Surrender by Sonya Hartnett, and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak are named as Honor Books in the 2007 American Library Association's Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature.
* "The Guardian" newspaper from the UK reports that Borders plans to sell its Australian stores.
* The small township of Clunes, about 20 kilometres north of Ballarat in Victoria, decides to try to set up Australia's first dedicated booktown. The first weekend event takes place on 20 May.
* AustLit (www.austlit.edu.au), the major Australian literature resource for research and teaching housed at the University of Queensland, announces the commencement of "Black Words", a literary website specialising in Australian Indigenous writers and storytellers and their works.
* Federal Education minister, Julie Bishop, announces that the Australian Government will allocate funds to A$1.5m to create a Chair of Australian Literature in an Australian university.
* Charlie Rimmer, Group Commercial Manager for Angus and Robertson bookshops, writes to a number of Australian independent publishers indicating that the bookshop chain will refuse to stock their books without compensation.
* Lonely Planet, the iconic Australian publisher of travel guides, is sold to the commercial division of the BBC in a deal reportedly worth A$200 million.
* Australia's new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, announces a major new literary prize of $100,000 in both fiction and non-fiction categories.
* Australia-Asia Literary Award established.

## Major publications
### Literary fiction

* David Brooks – The Fern Tattoo
* Steven Carroll – The Time We Have Taken
* Belinda Castles – The River Baptists
* Jon Cleary – Four-Cornered Circle
* J. M. Coetzee – Diary of a Bad Year
* Matthew Condon – The Trout Opera
* Steven Conte – The Zookeeper's War
* Gregory Day – Ron McCoy's Sea of Diamonds
* Michelle de Kretser – The Lost Dog
* Nicholas Drayson – Love and the Platypus
* Karen Foxlee – The Anatomy of Wings
* Rodney Hall – Love Without Hope
* Janette Turner Hospital – Orpheus Lost
* Gail Jones – Sorry
* Mireille Juchau – Burning In
* Thomas Keneally – The Widow and Her Hero
* Malcolm Knox – Jamaica
* Christopher Koch – The Memory Room
* Colleen McCullough – Antony and Cleopatra
* Carol Lefevre – Nights in the Asylum
* Rhyll McMaster – Feather Man
* David Malouf – The Complete Stories
* Alex Miller – Landscape of Farewell
* Nicholas Shakespeare – Secrets of the Sea
* Charlotte Wood – The Children
* Jessica White – A Curious Intimacy
* Geraldine Wooller – The Seamstress

### Children's and Young Adult fiction

* Alexandra Adornetto – The Shadow Thief
* Sherryl Clark – Sixth Grade Style Queen (Not!), illus by Elissa Christian
* Mem Fox – Where the Giant Sleeps
* Jackie French
** Pharaoh: The Boy Who Conquered the Nile
** The Shaggy Gully Times, illus by Bruce Whatley
* Scot Gardner – Gravity
* Sonya Hartnett – The Ghost's Child
* John Heffernan – Marty's Shadow
* Odo Hirsch – Amelia Dee and the Peacock Lamp
* Simmone Howell – Notes from the Teenage Underground
* Justine Larbalestier – Magic's Child
* Brigid Lowry – Tomorrow All Will Be Beautiful
* Meme McDonald – Love Like Water
* David Metzenthen
** Black Water
** Winning the World Cup, illus by Stephen Axelsen
* Garth Nix – Lady Friday
* Leonie Norrington – Leaving Barrumbi
* Emily Rodda – The Key to Rondo
* Scott Westerfeld – Extras
* Carole Wilkinson – Dragon Moon
* Sean Williams – The Changeling

### Crime and Mystery

* Mark Abernethy – Golden Serpent
* John Clanchy and Mark Henshaw (J.M. Calder) – And Hope to Die
* Garry Disher – Chain of Evidence
* Kathryn Fox – Skin and Bone
* Robert Gott – Amongst the Dead
* Kerry Greenwood – Trick or Treat
* Sarah Hopkins – The Crimes of Billy Fish
* Katherine Howell – Frantic
* Gabrielle Lord – Shattered
* Shane Maloney – Sucked In
* Dorothy Porter – El Dorado
* Leigh Redhead – Cherry Pie
* Michael Robotham – The Night Ferry
* Steve Toltz – A Fraction of the Whole
* Chris Womersley – The Low Road

### Romance

* Anna Campbell – Claiming the Courtesan
* Emma Darcy – The Billionaire's Scandalous Marriage
* Lilian Darcy – Cafe du Jour
* Kimberley Freeman – Duet
* Anna Jacobs – Tomorrow's Princess
* Melanie La'Brooy – Serendipity
* Tamara McKinley – Lands Beyond the Sea

### Science Fiction and Fantasy

* David Conyers & John Sunseri – The Spiraling Worm
* Marianne de Pierres – Dark Space
* Sara Douglass – The Serpent Bride
* Greg Egan
** "Dark Integers"
** "Glory"
** "Induction"
* Lian Hearn – Heaven's Net is Wide
* Jack Heath – Remote Control
* David Kowalski – The Company of the Dead
* Karen Miller – The Riven Kingdom
* Jason Nahrung & Mil Clayton – The Darkness Within
* Garth Nix – "Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz Go to War Again"
* Ben Peek – Black Sheep: A Dystopian Novel
* Sean Williams – Saturn Returns

### Drama

* Stephen Carleton – The Narcissist
* Michael Gow – Toy Symphony
* Tom Holloway – Beyond the Neck
* Katherine Thomson – King Tide
* Alana Valentine – Parramatta Girls

### Poetry

* Judith Bishop – Event
* David Brooks – Urban Elegies, Sydney: Island Press (Australia)
* Lisa Gorton – Press Release
* Kathryn Lomer – Two Kinds of Silence, University of Queensland Press, ISBN 978-0-7022-3612-9
* David Malouf – Typewriter Music, winner of the 2008 Arts Queensland Judith Wright Calanthe Award
* Dorothy Porter – El Dorado
* Peter Rose – The Best Australian Poems 2007, Black Inc., ISBN 978-1-86395-417-4
* Peter Skrzynecki – Old/New World, University of Queensland Press, ISBN 978-0-7022-3586-3
* Petra White – The Incoming Tide

### Non-fiction

* Janet Fife-Yeomans – Killing Jodie
* Tom Griffiths – Slicing the Silence: Voyaging to Antarctica
* Clive James – Cultural Amnesia: Notes in the Margin of My Time
* Paul Ham – Vietnam: The Australian War
* Philip Jones – Ochre and Rust: Artefacts and Encounters on Australian Frontiers
* Evan McHugh – Red Centre, Dark Heart
* Nicolas Rothwell – Another Country

### Biographies

* Philip Dwyer – Napoleon: The Path To Power 1769–1799
* Kim Huynh – Where the Sea Takes Us
* Mark Kurzem – The Mascot
* Brenda Niall – Life Class: The Education of a Biographer
* Craig Sherborne – Muck
* Jeff Sparrow – Communism: A Love Story

## Awards and honours
### Lifetime achievement

| Award | Author |
| Christopher Brennan Award | John Kinsella |
| Patrick White Award | David Rowbotham |

### Literary

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| The Age Book of the Year | Peter Cochrane | Colonial Ambition: Foundations of Australian Democracy | Melbourne University Press |
| ALS Gold Medal | Alexis Wright | Carpentaria | Giramondo |
| Colin Roderick Award | Deborah Robertson | Careless | Vintage |
| Nita Kibble Literary Award | Deborah Robertson | Careless | Vintage |

### Fiction
#### International

| Award | Region | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Commonwealth Writers' Prize | SE Asia and South Pacific | Best First Novel | Andrew O'Connor | Tuvalu | Allen and Unwin |

#### National

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| ABC Fiction Award | Damian McDonald | Luck in the Greater West | ABC Books |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Not awarded | | |
| The Age Book of the Year Award | David Malouf | Every Move You Make | Chatto & Windus |
| The Australian/Vogel Literary Award | Stefan Laszczuk | I Dream of Magda | Allen and Unwin |
| Miles Franklin Award | Alexis Wright | Carpentaria | Giramondo |
| Nita Kibble Literary Award | Deborah Robertson | Careless | Vintage Books |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Peter Carey | Theft: A Love Story | Alfred A. Knopf |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | Alexis Wright | Carpentaria | Giramondo |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Alexis Wright | Carpentaria | Giramondo |
| Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Simone Lazaroo | The Travel Writer | Macmillan |

### Children and Young Adult
#### International

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Andre Norton Award | Justine Larbalestier | Magic or Madness | Penguin Books |

#### National

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Older Readers | Margo Lanagan | Red Spikes | Allen & Unwin |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Younger Readers | Catherine Bateson | Being Bee | University of Queensland Press |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Picture Book | Shaun Tan | The Arrival | Lothian |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Early Childhood | Libby Gleeson, illus. Freya Blackwood | Amy and Louis | Scholastic Press |
| Davitt Award | Young Adult | Jaclyn Moriarty | The Betrayal of Bindy Mackenzie | Pan Books |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Children's | Narelle Oliver | Home | Omnibus Books |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Young People's | Ursula Dubosarsky | The Red Shoe | Allen & Unwin |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | Children's | Glenda Millard | Layla Queen of Hearts | ABC Books |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | Young Adult | Judith Clarke | One Whole and Perfect Day | Allen & Unwin |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Young Adult Fiction | Simmone Howell | Notes from the Teenage Underground | Macmillan |
| Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Writing for Young Adults | Kate McCaffrey | Destroying Avalon | Fremantle Arts Centre Press |
| Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Children's | Shaun Tan | The Arrival | Lothian |

### Crime and Mystery
#### International

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Duncan Lawrie Dagger | | Peter Temple | The Broken Shore | Text Publishing |

#### National

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Davitt Award | Novel | Sydney Bauer | Undertow | Macmillan |
| Davitt Award | Young Adult Novel | Jaclyn Moriarty | The Betrayal of Bindy Mackenzie | Macmillan |
| Davitt Award | True Crime | Karen Kissane | Silent Death: The Killing of Julie Ramage | Hodder |
| Davitt Award | Readers' Choice | Kerry Greenwood | Devil's Food | Allen & Unwin |
| Davitt Award | Readers' Choice | Karen Kissane | Silent Death: The Killing of Julie Ramage | Hodder |
| Ned Kelly Awards | Novel | Garry Disher | Chain of Evidence | Soho Press |
| Ned Kelly Awards | First novel | Adrian Hyland | Diamond Dove | Text Publishing |
| Ned Kelly Awards | True crime | Liz Porter | Written on the Skin | Pan Macmillan |
| Ned Kelly Awards | True crime | Debi Marshall | Killing For Pleasure: The Definitive Story of the Snowtown Murders | Random House |
| Ned Kelly Awards | Lifetime Achievement | Sandra Harvey and Lindsay Simpson | | |

### Science fiction

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Aurealis Award | Novel | Will Elliott | The Pilo Family Circus | ABC Books |
| Aurealis Award | Short Story | Shaun Tan | The Arrival | Lothian |
| Ditmar Award | Novel | Will Elliott | The Pilo Family Circus | ABC Books |
| Ditmar Award | Novella/Novelette | Paul Haines | "The Devil in Mr Pussy (Or How I Found God Inside My Wife)" | Coeur de Lion Publishing |
| Ditmar Award | Short Story | Rjurik Davidson | "The Fear of White" | Borderlands #7 |
| Ditmar Award | Collected Work | edited by Bill Congreve & Michelle Marquardt | The Year's Best Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy Vol. 2 | Mirrordanse Books |
| Australian Shadows Award | | Will Elliott | The Pilo Family Circus | ABC Books |

### Poetry

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Not awarded | | |
| The Age Book of the Year | Robert Adamson | The Goldfinches of Baghdad | Flood Editions |
| Anne Elder Award | Judith Bishop | Event | Salt Publishing |
| Grace Leven Prize for Poetry | Robert Adamson | The Goldfinches of Baghdad | Flood Editions |
| Mary Gilmore Prize | Not awarded | | |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | John Tranter | Urban Myths: 210 Poems | University of Queensland Press |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | Laurie Duggan | The Passenger | University of Queensland Press |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Judy Johnson | Jack | Pandanus Press |
| Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Dennis Haskell | All the Time in the World | Salt Publishing |

### Drama

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Patrick White Playwrights' Award (joint winners) | Angus Cerini | Wretch | |
| Patrick White Playwrights' Award (joint winners) | Timothy Daly | The Man in the Attic | |

### Non-Fiction

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Non-Fiction | Not awarded | |
| The Age Book of the Year | Non-fiction | Peter Cochrane | Colonial Ambition: Foundations of Australian Democracy | Melbourne University Press |
| Davitt Award | True crime | Karen Kissane | Silent Death: The Killing of Julie Ramage | Hachette Australia |
| National Biography Award | Biography | Jacob Rosenberg | East of Time | Brandl & Schlesinger |
| Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History | | Les Carlyon | The Great War | Macmillan |
| Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History | | Peter Cochrane | Colonial Ambition: Foundations of Australian Democracy | Melbourne University Press |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Non-fiction | Robert Hughes | Things I Didn't Know: A Memoir | Alfred A. Knopf |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | Australian History | Libby Robin | How a Continent Created a Nation | University of NSW Press |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | Community and Regional History | Regina Ganter | Mixed Relations: Asian Aboriginal Contact in North Australia | University of Western Australia Press |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | General History | Christopher Clark | Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 | Harvard University Press |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | Young People's | John Nicholson | Songlines and Stone Axes | Allen & Unwin |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | Non-fiction | Tom Griffith | Slicing the Silence: Voyaging to Antarctica | University of NSW Press |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | History | Christopher Clark | Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 | Harvard University Press |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Non-fiction | Danielle Clode | Voyages to the South Seas: In Search of Terres Australes | Melbourne University Press |

## Deaths

* 13 February – Elizabeth Jolley, author (born 1923)
* 22 February – Joyce Lee, poet (born 1913)
* 2 March – David A. Myers, poet and publisher (born 1942)
* 23 May – John Croyston, poet (born 1933)
* 11 July – Glenda Adams, author (born 1939)
* 11 July – Noel Rowe, poet (born 1951)
* 1 August – Mona Brand, playwright (born 1915)
* 24 August – Philip Grundy, translator (born 1932)
* 16 October – Steve J. Spears, author and playwright (born 1951)
* 31 October – Eric Rolls, author (born 1923)
* 24 December – Jan McKemmish, author (born 1950)