# 2016 in Australian literature

This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 2016.

## Major publications
### Literary fiction

* Melissa Ashley – The Birdman's Wife
* Georgia Blain – Between a Wolf and a Dog
* Hannah Kent – The Good People
* Ryan O'Neill – Their Brilliant Careers
* Heather Rose – The Museum of Modern Love
* Philip Salom – Waiting
* Dominic Smith – The Last Painting of Sara de Vos
* Josephine Wilson – Extinctions

### Children's and young adult fiction

* Trace Balla – Rockhopping
* Maxine Beneba Clarke – The Patchwork Bike
* Georgia Blain – Special
* Andy Griffiths
** The Tree House Fun Book
** The 78-Storey Treehouse
* Zana Fraillon – The Bone Sparrow
* Tania McCartney – Smile/Cry: A Beginner's Book of Feelings
* Shivaun Plozza – Frankie
* Richard Roxburgh – Artie and the Grime Wave
* Claire Zorn – One Would Think the Deep

### Crime

* Peter Corris – That Empty Feeling
* Candice Fox and James Patterson – Never Never
* Jane Harper – The Dry
* Emily Maguire – An Isolated Incident
* Barry Maitland – Slaughter Park
* Adrian McKinty – Rain Dogs
* Jock Serong – The Rules of Backyard Cricket
* David Whish-Wilson – Old Scores

### Science fiction and fantasy

* Alison Croggon – The Bone Queen
* Juliet Marillier – Den of Wolves
* Anthony O'Neill – The Dark Side
* C. S. Pacat – Kings Rising
* Lian Hearn – Emperor of the Eight Islands
* Angela Slatter – Vigil

### Poetry

* Peter Boyle – Ghostspeaking
* Maxine Beneba Clarke – Carrying the World
* John Kinsella – Drowning in Wheat
* Berndt Sellheim – Awake at the Wheel
* Susan Varga – Rupture: Poems 2012–2015

### Drama

* Leah Purcell – The Drover's Wife
* David Morton – The Wider Earth

### Biographies

* Deng Thiak Adut with Ben McKelvey – Songs of a War Boy: My Story
* Julia Baird – Victoria: The Queen
* Jimmy Barnes –Working Class Boy
* Mark Colvin – Light and Shadow: Memoirs of a Spy's Son
* Suzanne Falkiner – Mick: A Life of Randolph Stow
* Stan Grant – Talking to My Country
* Cory Taylor – Dying: A Memoir

### Non-fiction

* Richard Fidler – Ghost Empire
* Peter FitzSimons – Victory at Villers-Bretonneux: Why a French town will never forget the Anzacs
* Clementine Ford – Fight Like A Girl
* Helen Garner – Everywhere I Look
* David Hunt – True Girt: The Unauthorised History of Australia Volume 2
* Lynne Kelly – The Memory Code
* Tara Moss – Speaking Out: A 21st Century Handbook For Women and Girls

## Awards and honours

Note: these awards were presented in the year in question.

### Lifetime achievement

| Award | Author |
| Patrick White Award | Carmel Bird |

### Literary

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| ALS Gold Medal | Brenda Niall | Mannix | Text Publishing |
| Colin Roderick Award | Gail Jones | A Guide to Berlin | Random House |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Charlotte Wood | The Natural Way of Things | Allen & Unwin |
| Nita Kibble Literary Award | Fiona Wright | Small Acts of Disappearance | Giramondo Publishing |
| Stella Prize | Charlotte Wood | The Natural Way of Things | Allen & Unwin |
| Victorian Prize for Literature | Mary Anne Butler | Broken | Currency Press |

### Fiction
#### National

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Tamsin Janu | Figgy in the World | Omnibus Books |
| The Australian/Vogel Literary Award | Katherine Brabon | The Memory Artist | Allen & Unwin |
| Barbara Jefferis Award | Peggy Frew | Hope Farm | Scribe |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Fiction | Charlotte Wood | The Natural Way of Things | Allen & Unwin |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Debut Fiction | Lucy Treloar | Salt Creek | Macmillan |
| Miles Franklin Award | A. S. Patrić | Black Rock White City | Transit Lounge |
| Prime Minister's Literary Awards | Lisa Gorton (joint winner) | The Life of Houses | Giramondo |
| Prime Minister's Literary Awards | Charlotte Wood (joint winner) | The Natural Way of Things | Allen & Unwin |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Merlinda Bobis | Locust Girl: A Lovesong | Spinifex Press |
| Queensland Literary Awards | Georgia Blain | Between a Wolf and a Dog | Scribe |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award | Mireille Juchau | The World Without Us | Bloomsbury Publishing |

### Children and young adult
#### National

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Older Readers | Fiona Wood | Cloudwish | Macmillan Australia |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Younger Readers | Morris Gleitzman | Soon | Viking Books |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Picture Book | Nadia Wheatley, text Armin Greder, illus. | Flight | Windy Hollow Books |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Early Childhood | Anna Walker | Mr Huff | Penguin Random House |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Children's | Aaron Blabey | The Bad Guys: Episode 1 | Scholastic Australia |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Young Adult | Fiona Wood | Cloudwish | Pan MacMillan |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Children's | Rebecca Young & Matt Ottley | Teacup | Scholastic Australia |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Young People's | Alice Pung | Laurinda | Black Inc. |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award | Young Adult Fiction | Marlee Jane Ward | Welcome to Orphancorp | Xou Pty Ltd |

### Crime and mystery
#### National

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Davitt Award | Novel | Emma Viskic | Resurrection Bay | Echo Publishing |
| Davitt Award | Young adult novel | Fleur Ferris | Risk | Random House |
| Davitt Award | Children's novel | R. A Spratt | Friday Barnes, Under Suspicion | Random House |
| Davitt Award | True crime | Alecia Simmonds | Wild Man | Affirm Press |
| Davitt Award | Debut novel | Emma Viskic | Resurrection Bay | Echo Publishing |
| Davitt Award | Debut novel | Fleur Ferris | Risk | Random House |
| Davitt Award | Readers' choice | Emma Viskic | Resurrection Bay | Echo Publishing |
| Ned Kelly Award | Novel | Dave Warner | Before It Breaks | Fremantle Press |
| Ned Kelly Award | First novel | Emma Viskic | Resurrection Bay | Echo Publishing |
| Ned Kelly Award | True crime | Gideon Haigh | Certain Admissions | Penguin |
| Ned Kelly Award | Lifetime achievement | Not awarded | | |

### Science fiction

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Aurealis Award | Sf Novel | Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff | Gemima: The Illuminae Files 2 | Allen & Unwin |
| Aurealis Award | Sf Short Story | Samantha Murray | "Of Sight, of Mind, of Heart" | Clarkesworld 122 |
| Aurealis Award | Fantasy Novel | Jay Kristoff | Nevernight | Harper Voyager |
| Aurealis Award | Fantasy Short Story | Thoraiya Dyer | "Where the Pelican Builds Her Nest" | In Your Face (FableCroft Publishing) |
| Aurealis Award | Horror Novel | Kaaron Warren | The Grief Hole | IFWG Publishing Australia |
| Aurealis Award | Horror Short Story | TR Napper | "Flame Trees" | Asimov’s Science Fiction |
| Aurealis Award | Young Adult Novel | Alison Goodman | Lady Helen and the Dark Days Pact | HarperCollins Publishers |
| Aurealis Award | Young Adult Short Story | Leife Shallcross | "Pretty Jennie Greenteeth" | Strange Little Girls (Belladonna Publishing) |
| Ditmar Award | Novel | Lisa L. Hannett | Lament for the Afterlife | ChiZine Publications |
| Ditmar Award | Best Novella or Novelette | Sean Williams | "Of Sorrow and Such" | Of Sorrow and Such (Tor.com) |
| Ditmar Award | Best Short Story | Kathleen Jennings | "A Hedge of Yellow Roses" | Hear Me Roar (Ticonderoga Publications) |

### Poetry

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Les Murray | Waiting for the Past | Black Inc Press |
| Anne Elder Award | John Hawke | Aurelia | Cordite Books |
| Mary Gilmore Award | Benedict Andrews | Lens Flare | Pitt Street Poetry |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Joanne Burns | brush | Giramondo Publishing |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award | Alan Loney | Crankhandle | Cordite Books |

### Drama

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Script | Cate Shortland | Deadline Gallipoli, Episode 4: "The Letter" | Matchbox Pictures & Full Clip Productions |
| Patrick White Playwrights' Award | Award | Lewis Treston | Hot Tub | Sydney Theatre Company |
| Patrick White Playwrights' Award | Fellowship | Andrew Bovell | | |

### Non-fiction

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Non-Fiction | Robert Dessaix | What Days Are For | Random House Australia |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Non-Fiction | Magda Szubanski | Reckoning: A Memoir | Text Publishing |
| National Biography Award | Biography | Brenda Niall | Mannix | Text Publishing |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Non-Fiction | Magda Szubanski | Reckoning: A Memoir | Text Publishing |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | Australian History | Stuart Macintyre | Australia’s Boldest Experiment: War and Reconstruction in the 1940s | NewSouth Books |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | Community and Regional History | Tanya Evans | Fractured Families: Life on the Margins in Colonial New South Wales | University of New South Wales Press |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | General History | Ann McGrath | Illicit Love: Interracial Sex and Marriage in the United States and Australia | Nebraska University Press |
| Queensland Literary Awards | Non-Fiction | Fiona Wright | Small Acts of Disappearance: Essays on Hunger | Giramondo |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award | Non-fiction | Gerald Murnane | Something for the Pain | Text Publishing |

## Deaths

* 31 January – David Lake, science fiction novelist (born 1929 in India)
* 3 February – Dimitris Tsaloumas, poet (born 1921 in Greece)
* 19 February – Kim Gamble, illustrator of children's books (born 1952)
* 3 April – Bob Ellis, writer, journalist, filmmaker, and political commentator (born 1942)
* 20 April – Dame Leonie Judith Kramer, author, editor and academic (born 1924)
* 16 May – Gillian Mears, short story writer and novelist (born 1964)
* 5 July – Cory Taylor, writer (born 1955)
* 15 July – Billy Marshall Stoneking, poet, playwright, filmmaker and teacher (born 1947 in Orlando, Florida)
* 4 September – Richard Neville, writer and social commentator (born 1941)
* 8 September – Inga Clendinnen, author and historian (born 1934)
* 3 October – Narelle Oliver, award-winning children's author-illustrator, artist and print maker (born 1960)
* 19 November – Margaret Paice, children's writer and illustrator (born 1920)
* 9 December – Georgia Blain, novelist, journalist and biographer (born 1964)
* 12 December –
** Anne Deveson, writer, broadcaster, filmmaker and social commentator (born 1930 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
** Shirley Hazzard, novelist, short story writer, and essayist (died in Manhattan, New York)(born 1931)