# 2018 in Australian literature

This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 2018.

## Major publications
### Literary fiction

* Michael Mohammed Ahmad – The Lebs
* Robbie Arnott – Flames
* Trent Dalton – Boy Swallows Universe
* Gregory Day – A Sand Archive
* Ceridwen Dovey – In the Garden of the Fugitives
* Rodney Hall – A Stolen Season
* Gail Jones – The Death of Noah Glass
* Eleanor Limprecht – The Passengers
* Melissa Lucashenko – Too Much Lip
* Heather Morris – The Tattooist of Auschwitz
* Kristina Olsson – Shell
* Ryan O'Neill – The Drover's Wives
* Kim Scott – Taboo
* Tim Winton – The Shepherd's Hut
* Markus Zusak – Bridge of Clay

### Children's and Young Adult fiction

* Maxine Beneba Clarke – Wide Big World, illustrated by Isobel Knowles
* Mem Fox – Bonnie and Ben Rhyme Again, illustrated by Judy Horacek
* Andy Griffiths – The 104-Storey Treehouse
* Ambelin Kwaymullina and Ezekial Kwaymullina – Catching Teller Crow
* Richard Roxburgh – Artie and the Grime Wave
* Shaun Tan
** Cicada
** Tales from the Inner City
* Lili Wilkinson – After the Lights Go Out

### Crime and Mystery

* Garry Disher – Kill Shot
* Candice Fox – Redemption Point
* Kerry Greenwood – The Spotted Dog
* Chris Hammer – Scrublands
* Jane Harper – The Lost Man
* Dervla McTiernan – The Rúin
* Kate Morton – The Clockmaker's Daughter
* Michael Robotham – The Other Wife
* Sue Williams – Live and Let Fry

### Science Fiction and Fantasy

* Alan Baxter
** Hidden City
** Devouring Dark
* Kylie Chan – Scales of Empire
* Traci Harding – This Present Past
* Jennifer Mills – Dyschronia
* Kaaron Warren – Tide of Stone

### Poetry

* Jordie Albiston – Warlines
* Judith Beveridge – Sun Music: New and Selected Poems
* Ken Bolton – Starting at Basheer's
* Sarah Day – Towards Light & Other Poems
* Paul Hetherington – Moonlight on Oleander
* Bella Li – Lost Lake
* John Mateer – João
* Tim Metcalf – The Underwritten Plain
* Tracy Ryan – The Water Bearer

### Drama

* Alana Valentine – The Sugar House

### Biographies and memoirs

* Peter FitzSimons – Monash's Masterpiece
* Jacqui Lambie – Rebel with a Cause: You can't keep a bloody Lambie down — my story from soldier to senator and beyond
* Vicki Laveau-Harvie – The Erratics
* Bri Lee – Eggshell Skull
* Anne Summers – Unfettered and Alive: A Memoir
* Gillian Triggs – Speaking Up
* Nadia Wheatley – Her Mother's Daughter

### Non-fiction

* Cynthia Banham – A Certain Light
* Steve Biddulph – Raising Boys In The Twenty-First Century: How To Help Our Boys Become Open-Hearted, Kind And Strong Men
* Behrouz Boochani – No Friend But the Mountains
* Stephen Gapps – The Sydney Wars: Conflict in the Early Colony 1788–1817
* Richard Glover – The Land Before Avocado
* Billy Griffiths – Deep Time Dreaming
* Anita Heiss (editor) – Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia
* Chloe Hooper – The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire
* Thomas Keneally – Australians: A Short History
* Meredith Lake – The Bible in Australia: A cultural history
* Michael C. Madden – The Victoria Cross: Australia Remembers
* Leigh Sales – Any Ordinary Day

## Awards and honours

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

### Lifetime achievement

| Award | Author |
| Melbourne Prize for Literature | Alison Lester |
| Patrick White Award | Samuel Wagan Watson |

### Literary

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| ALS Gold Medal | Shastra Deo | The Agonist | University of Queensland Press |
| Colin Roderick Award | Jock Serong | On the Java Ridge | Text Publishing |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Jessica Townsend | Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow | Lothian |
| Nita Kibble Literary Award | Fiona McFarlane | The High Places | Hodder and Stoughton |
| Stella Prize | Alexis Wright | Tracker | Giramondo |
| Victorian Prize for Literature | Sarah Krasnostein | The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman's Extraordinary Life in Death, Decay & Disaster | Text Publishing |

### Fiction
#### International

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Staunch Book Prize | Jock Serong | On the Java Ridge | Text Publishing |

#### National

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Eva Hornung | The Last Garden | Text Publishing |
| The Australian/Vogel Literary Award | Emily O'Grady | The Yellow House | Allen & Unwin |
| Barbara Jefferis Award | Libby Angel | The Trapeze Act | Text Publishing |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Fiction | Sofie Laguna | The Choke | Allen & Unwin |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Debut Fiction | Mark Brandi | Wimmera | Hachette Australia |
| Miles Franklin Award | Michelle de Kretser | The Life to Come | Allen & Unwin |
| Prime Minister's Literary Awards | Gerald Murnane | Border Districts | Giramondo |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Bram Presser | The Book of Dirt | Text Publishing |
| Queensland Literary Awards | Kim Scott | Taboo | Pan Macmillan |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award | Melanie Cheng | Australia Day | Text Publishing |

### Children and Young Adult
#### National

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Older Readers | Cath Crowley, Fiona Wood and Simmone Howell | Take Three Girls | Pan Macmillan |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Younger Readers | Bren MacDibble | How to Bee | Allen & Unwin |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Picture Book | Gwyn Perkins | A Walk in the Bush | Affirm Press |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Early Childhood | Michael Gerard Bauer; Chrissie Krebs (illustrator) | Rodney Loses It! | Omnibus Books |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Eve Pownall Award for Information Books | Idan Ben-Barak, illus. Julian Frost | Do Not Lick This Book | Allen & Unwin |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Children's | Jessica Townsend | Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow | Lothian |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Young Adult | Mark Smith | Wilder Country | Text Publishing |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Children's | Bren MacDibble | How to Bee | Allen & Unwin |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Young People's | Zana Fraillon | The Ones That Disappeared | Lothian |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award | Young Adult Fiction | Demet Divaroren | Living on Hope Street | Allen & Unwin |

### Crime and Mystery
#### National

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Davitt Award | Novel | Emma Viskic | And Fire Came Down | Echo Books |
| Davitt Award | Young adult novel | Vikki Wakefield | Ballad for a Mad Girl | Text Publishing |
| Davitt Award | Children's novel | Allison Rushby | The Turnkey | Walker Books |
| Davitt Award | True crime | Gabriella Coslovich | Whitely on Trial | Melbourne University Press |
| Davitt Award | Debut novel | Sarah Bailey | The Dark Lake | Allen & Unwin |
| Davitt Award | Readers' choice | Jane Harper | Force of Nature | Pan Macmillan |
| Ned Kelly Award | Novel | Sulari Gentill | Crossing the Lines | Pantera |
| Ned Kelly Award | First novel | Sarah Bailey | The Dark Lake | Allen & Unwin |
| Ned Kelly Award | True crime | Graham Archer | Unmaking a Murder: The Mysterious Death of Anna-Jane Cheney | Random House |
| Ned Kelly Award | Lifetime achievement | Garry Disher | | |

### Science fiction

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Ditmar Award | Novel | Thoraiya Dyer | Crossroads of Canopy | Tor |
| Ditmar Award | Best Novella or Novelette | Tansy Rayner Roberts | "Girl Reporter" | Girl Reporter (Book Smugglers Publishing) |
| Ditmar Award | Best Short Story | Janeen Webb | "A Pearl Beyond Price" | Cthulhu Deep Down-Under Vol 1 (IFWG Publishing Australia) |

### Poetry

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Pam Brown | Missing Up | Vagabond Press |
| Anne Elder Award | Rico Craig | Bone Ink | Guillotine Press |
| Mary Gilmore Award | Quinn Eades | Rallying | UWA Publishing |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Bella Li | Argosy | Vagabond Press |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award | Bella Li | Argosy | Vagabond Press |

### Drama

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Script (joint winners) | Amanda Blue and Jacob Hickey | Deep Water: The Real Story | Blackfella Films |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Script (joint winners) | Jane Campion and Gerard Lee | Birthday, Top of the Lake: China Girl, Series 2 Episode 4 | See Saw Films |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Play | Nakkiah Lui | Black is the New White | Sydney Theatre Company |

### Non-Fiction

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Non-Fiction | Tim Winton | The Boy Behind the Curtain | Penguin Books |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Non-Fiction | Richard Fidler & Kári Gíslason | Saga Land | HarperCollins |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Illustrated Non-Fiction | Kate Herd & Jela Ivankovic-Waters | Native: Art & Design with Australian Plants | Thames & hudson |
| National Biography Award | Biography | Judith Brett | The Enigmatic Mr Deakin | Text Publishing |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Non-Fiction | Paul Ham | Passchendaele: Requiem for Doomed Youth | William Heinemann Australia |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | Australian History | Christina Twomey | The Battle Within: POWs in Postwar Australia | NewSouth Publishing |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | Community and Regional History | Paul Irish | Hidden in Plain View: The Aboriginal People of Coastal Sydney | NewSouth Publishing |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | General History | Sean Scalmer | On the Stump: Campaign Oratory and Democracy in the United States, Britain, and Australia | Temple University Press |
| Queensland Literary Awards | Non-Fiction | Alexis Wright | Tracker | Giramondo Publishing |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award | Non-fiction | Sarah Krasnostein | The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman's Extraordinary Life in Death, Decay & Disaster | Text Publishing |

## Deaths

* 6 March – Peter Nicholls, writer and editor of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (born 1939)
* 8 March – Peter Temple, author of Jack Irish series (born 1946)
* 3 April – Noela Young, children's book illustrator and writer (born 1930)
* 14 April – Frank Bren, Australian actor and playwright (born 1943)
* 16 April – Beverley Farmer, novelist and short story writer (born 1941)
* 1 June – Jill Ker Conway, academic and memoir writer, author of The Road from Coorain (born 1934)
* 2 June – Tony Morphett, screenwriter and novelist (born 1938)
* 30 August – Peter Corris, crime novelist (born 1942)
* 31 August – Ian Jones author and television writer and director (born 1931)
* 12 September – Albert Ullin OAM, German Australian children's bookseller and founder of Australia's first children's bookstore, The Little Bookroom (born 1930)
* 16 September – John Molony, historian and Emeritus Professor of History at Australian National University (born 1927)
* 6 October – James Cowan, author (born 1942)
* 21 October – Eleanor Witcombe, screenwriter and playwright (born 1923)
* 22 October
** Anne Fairbairn, poet, journalist and expert in Arab culture (born 1928)
** Rose Zwi, novelist (born 1928)
* 22 November – Judith Rodriguez, poet and academic (born 1936)