# 2008 in Australian literature

This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 2008.

## Events

* "The Bulletin" magazine publishes its last issue, the first was in 1880
* The Australia Council for the Arts announces Christopher Koch and Gerald Murnane as recipients of its 2008 emeritus writers awards
* The Australian Federal Government announces funding for a new chair of Australian Literature based at the University of Western Australia
* Clunes, Victoria, holds its second Booktown weekend
* The first Crime and Justice Festival in held in Melbourne over the weekend of 19–20 July
* Australia wins the right to host the 2010 World SF convention in Melbourne
* A number of previously unknown Banjo Paterson poems are found in an old cash book dating back to the Boer War
* UNESCO names Melbourne as its second City of Literature, after Edinburgh received the first such award in 2004
* Caro Llewellyn, a former director of the Sydney Writers' Festival and PEN World Voices Festival in New York, is appointed as director of the new Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas (now called the Wheeler Centre) in Melbourne
* The Indie Book Awards are presented for the first time

## Major publications
### Literary fiction

* Debra Adelaide – The Household Guide to Dying
* Murray Bail – The Pages
* Geraldine Brooks – People of the Book
* Peter Carey – His Illegal Self
* Luke Davies – God of Speed
* Robert Drewe – The Rip
* Richard Flanagan – Wanting
* Helen Garner – The Spare Room
* Peter Goldsworthy – Everything I Knew
* Kate Grenville – The Lieutenant
* Vicki Hastrich – The Great Arch
* Wendy James – The Steele Diaries
* Susan Johnson – Life in Seven Mistakes
* Toni Jordan – Addition
* Sofie Laguna – One Foot Wrong
* Nam Le – The Boat
* Joan London – The Good Parents
* Louis Nowra – Ice
* Kevin Rabelais – The Landscape of Desire
* Claire Thomas – fugitive blue
* Steve Toltz – A Fraction of the Whole
* Ian Townsend – The Devil's Eye
* Christos Tsiolkas – The Slap
* Tim Winton – Breath
* Arnold Zable – Sea of Many Returns

### Children's and young adult fiction

* Isobelle Carmody – The Stone Key
* Kate Constable – Always Mackenzie
* Alison Croggon —The Singing
* Mem Fox and Helen Oxenbury – Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes
* Jackie French – A Rose for the Anzac Boys
* Mark Greenwood and Frane Lessac – Simpson and His Donkey
* Jack Heath – Money Run
* Simone Howell – Everything Beautiful
* Catherine Jinks – Genius Squad
* Maureen McCarthy – Somebody's Crying
* Melina Marchetta – Finnikin of the Rock
* Sophie Masson – The Case of the Diamond Shadow
* Garth Nix – Superior Saturday
* Penni Russon – The Indigo Girls
* Shaun Tan – Tales from Outer Suburbia
* Lili Wilkinson – The (Not Quite) Perfect Boyfriend
* Sean Williams – Dust Devils

### Crime and mystery

* Peter Corris – Open File
* Leah Giarratano – Voodoo Doll
* Kerry Greenwood – Murder on a Midsummer Night
* Marion Halligan – Murder on the Apricot Coast
* Jarad Henry – Blood Sunset
* Katherine Howell – The Darkest Hour
* Barry Maitland – Bright Air
* PD Martin – Fan Mail
* Camilla Nelson – Crooked
* Alex Palmer – The Tattooed Man
* Bronwyn Parry – As Darkness Falls
* Kel Robertson – Smoke and Mirrors
* Michael Robotham – Shatter

### Romance

* Anne Gracie – The Stolen Princess
* Stephanie Laurens – The Edge of Desire
* Margaret Leigh – The Heart Divided
* Estelle Pinney – Burnt Sunshine

### Science fiction and fantasy

* K. A. Bedford – Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait
* Honey Brown – Red Queen
* Nathan Burrage – Fivefold
* Sara Douglass – The Twisted Citadel
* Greg Egan
** "Crystal Nights"
** Dark Integers and Other Stories
** Incandescence
** "Lost Continent"
* Jennifer Fallon – The Chaos Crystal
* Pamela Freeman – Deep Water
* Alison Goodman – The Two Pearls of Wisdom
* Traci Harding – The Dragon Queens
* Simon Haynes – Hal Spacejock: No Free Lunch
* Margo Lanagan – Tender Morsels
* Juliet Marillier – Heir to Sevenwaters
* K. E. Mills – The Accidental Sorcerer
* Cat Sparks – "Sammarynda Deep"
* Sean Williams – Earth Ascendant

### Drama

* John Doyle – The Pig Iron People
* Alexandra Edmondson – Cruising
* Joanna Murray-Smith – Ninety

### Poetry

See also 2008 in poetry
* Robert Adamson – The Golden Bird: New and Selected Poems, winner of the C.J. Dennis Prize for Poetry in the 2009 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, shortlisted for the 2009 Age Book of the Year Awards
* Michael Brennan – Unanimous Night
* David Brooks – The Balcony, finalist for the 2008 Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry; University of Queensland Press, ISBN 978-0-7022-3669-3
* Elizabeth Hodgson – Skin Painting, winner of the 2007 David Unaipon Award; University of Queensland Press, ISBN 978-0-7022-3677-8
* Sarah Holland-Batt – Aria
* Clive James – Opal Sunset: Selected Poems, 1958–2008
* John Kinsella – Divine Comedy, University of Queensland Press, ISBN 978-0-7022-3666-2
* Anthony Lawrence – Bark, University of Queensland Press, ISBN 978-0-7022-3664-8
* David Malouf – Revolving Days, University of Queensland Press, ISBN 978-0-7022-3635-8
* Peter Rose editor – The Best Australian Poems 2008 Black Inc., ISBN 978-1-86395-303-0

### Non-fiction

* Germaine Greer – On Rage
* Chloe Hooper – The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island
* John Silvester and Andrew Rule – Underbelly: The Gangland War

### Biographies

* Peter Costello – The Costello Memoirs
* Jacqueline Kent – An Exacting Heart: The Story of Hephzibah Menuhin
* Andrew Riemer – A Family History of Smoking

## Awards and honours
### Lifetime achievement

| Award | Author |
| Christopher Brennan Award | Not awarded |
| Patrick White Award | John Romeril |

### Literary

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| The Age Book of the Year | Don Watson | American Journeys | Random House |
| ALS Gold Medal | Michelle de Kretser | The Lost Dog | Allen & Unwin |
| Colin Roderick Award | Malcolm Knox | Jamaica | Allen & Unwin |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Tim Winton | Breath | Hamish Hamilton |
| Nita Kibble Literary Award | Carol Lefevre | Nights in the Asylum | Vintage |

### Fiction
#### International

| Award | Region | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Commonwealth Writers' Prize | SE Asia and South Pacific | Best Novel | Steven Carroll | The Time We Have Taken | HarperCollins |
| Commonwealth Writers' Prize | SE Asia and South Pacific | Best First Novel | Karen Foxlee | The Anatomy of Wings | University of Queensland Press |

#### National

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| ABC Fiction Award | Kain Massin | God for the Killing | ABC Books |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Roger McDonald | The Ballad of Desmond Kale | Vintage Books |
| The Age Book of the Year Award | Tim Winton | Breath | Hamish Hamilton |
| Australia-Asia Literary Award | David Malouf | The Complete Stories | Knopf |
| The Australian/Vogel Literary Award | Andrew Cromme | Document Z | Allen and Unwin |
| Barbara Jefferis Award | Rhyll McMaster | Feather Man | Brandl and Schlesinger |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Fiction | Tim Winton | Breath | Hamish Hamilton |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Debut Fiction | Toni Jordan | Addition | Text Publishing |
| Miles Franklin Award | Steven Carroll | The Time We Have Taken | HarperCollins |
| Prime Minister's Literary Awards | Steven Conte | The Zookeeper's War | HarperCollins |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Michelle de Kretser | The Lost Dog | Allen & Unwin |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | Helen Garner | The Spare Room | Text Publishing |
| South Australian Premier's Awards | Roger McDonald | The Ballad of Desmond Kale | Vintage Books |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Helen Garner | The Spare Room | Text Publishing |
| Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Stephen Scourfield | Other Country | Allen & Unwin |

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

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Aurealis Award | Young Adult Novel | Melina Marchetta | Finnikin of the Rock | Viking Press |
| Aurealis Award | Young Adult Short Story | Trent Jamieson | "Cracks" | Shiny, magazine |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Older Readers | Sonya Hartnett | The Ghost's Child | Viking Books |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Younger Readers | Carole Wilkinson | Dragon Moon | Black Dog Books |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Picture Book | Matt Ottley | Requiem for a Beast | Lothian |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Early Childhood | Aaron Blabey | Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley | Viking Books |
| Davitt Award | Young Adult Novel | Mandy Sayer | The Night has a Thousand Eyes | Fourth Estate |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Children's & YA | Shaun Tan | Tales from Outer Suburbia | Allen & Unwin |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Children's | Li Cunxin and Anne Spudvilas | The Peasant Prince | Viking Books |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Young People's | James Roy | Town | University of Queensland Press |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | Children's | Li Cunxin and Anne Spudvilas | The Peasant Prince | Viking Books |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | Young Adult | Matt Ottley | Requiem for a Beast | Lothian |
| South Australian Premier's Awards | Children's | Michael Gerard Bauer | Don't Call Me Ishmael | Omnibus Books |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award | Young Adult Fiction | Brigid Lowry | Tomorrow All Will Be Beautiful | Allen and Unwin |
| Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Children's | Liz Lofthouse and Robert Ingpen | Ziba Came on a Boat | Viking Books |
| Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Writing for Young Adults | Ken Spillman | Love is a UFO | Pan Macmillan |

### Crime and mystery
#### National

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Davitt Award | Novel | Katherine Howell | Frantic | Pan Macmillan |
| Davitt Award | Young adult novel | Mandy Sayer | The Night Has a Thousand Eyes | Fourth Estate |
| Davitt Award | True crime | Janet Fife-Yeomans | Killing Jodie | Penguin |
| Davitt Award | Readers' Choice | Lindy Cameron | Scarlet Stiletto: The First Cut | Mira Books |
| Ned Kelly Awards | Novel | Michael Robotham | Shatter | Sphere Books |
| Ned Kelly Awards | First novel | Chris Womersley | The Low Road | Scribe |
| Ned Kelly Awards | True crime | Evan McHugh | Red Centre, Dark Heart | Penguin |
| Ned Kelly Awards | Lifetime achievement | Marele Day | | |

### Science fiction

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Aurealis Award | SF Novel | K. A. Bedford | Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait | Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing |
| Aurealis Award | SF Short Story | Simon Brown | "The Empire" | Dreaming Again, Voyager |
| Aurealis Award | Fantasy Novel | Alison Goodman | The Two Pearls of Wisdom | HarperCollins |
| Aurealis Award | Fantasy Short Story | Cat Sparks | "Sammarynda Deep" | Paper Cities, Senses 5 Press |
| Aurealis Award | Horror Novel | John Harwood | The Seance | Random House |
| Aurealis Award | Horror Short Story | Kirstyn McDermott | "Painlessness" | Greatest Uncommon Denominator #2 |
| Ditmar Award | Novel | Sean Williams | Saturn Returns | Orbit Books |
| Ditmar Award | Novella/Novelette | Cat Sparks | "Lady of Adestan" | Orb #7 |
| Ditmar Award | Short Story | Rick Kennett | "The Dark and What It Said" | Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #28 |
| Ditmar Award | Collected Work | Jonathan Strahan ed. | The New Space Opera | HarperCollins |
| Ditmar Award | Collected Work | Russell B. Farr ed. | Fantastic Wonder Stories | Ticonderoga Publications |

### Poetry

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | John Tranter | Urban Myths: 210 Poems | University of Queensland Press |
| The Age Book of the Year | J. S. Harry | Not Finding Wittgenstein | Giramondo Publishing |
| Anne Elder Award | Sarah Holland-Batt | Aria | University of Queensland Press |
| Anne Elder Award | Sandy Fitts | View from the Lucky Hotel | Five Islands Press |
| Grace Leven Prize for Poetry | Alan Wearne | The Australian Popular Songbook | Giramondo Publishing |
| Mary Gilmore Prize | Nathan Shepherdson | Sweeping the Light Back into the Mirror | University of Queensland Press |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Kathryn Lomer | Two Kinds of Silence | University of Queensland Press |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | David Malouf | Typewriter Music | University of Queensland Press |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award | Lisa Gorton | Press Release | Giramondo Publishing |
| Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Hal Colebatch | The Light River | Connorcourt Publishing |

### Drama

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Patrick White Playwrights' Award | Nicki Bloom | Bloodwood | |

### Non-fiction

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Non-Fiction | Jacob Rosenberg | Sunrise West | Brandl and Schlesinger |
| The Age Book of the Year | Non-fiction | Don Watson | American Journeys | Random House |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Eve Pownall Award for Information Books | Frances Watts, illus David Legge | Parsley Rabbit's Book about Books | ABC Books |
| Davitt Award | True crime | Janet Fife-Yeomans | Killing Jodie | Penguin Books |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Non-Fiction | Don Watson | American Journeys | Random House |
| National Biography Award | Biography | Philip Dwyer | Napoleon: The Path To Power 1769–1799 | Bloomsbury Publishing |
| National Biography Award | Biography | Graham Seal | These Few Lines: A Convict Story – The Lost Lives of Myra & William Sykes | ABC Books |
| Prime Minister's Literary Awards | Non-fiction | Philip Jones | Ochre and Rust: Artefacts and Encounters on Australian Frontiers | Wakefield Press |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Non-fiction | Tom Griffiths | Slicing the Silence: Voyaging to Antarctica | University of New South Wales Press |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | Australian History | Paul Ham | Vietnam: The Australian War | HarperCollins |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | Community and Regional History | Dianne Johnson, in collaboration with the residents of the Gully and their descendants | Sacred Waters: the story of the Blue Mountains Gully Traditional Owners | Halstead Press |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | General History | Michael A. McDonnell | The Politics of War: Race, Class and Conflict in Revolutionary Virginia | University of North Carolina Press |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | Young People's | Robert Lewis and Tim Gurry | Australians in the Vietnam War | Ryebuck Media Pty Ltd |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | Non-fiction | Craig Sherborne | Muck | Black Inc |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | History | Professor Marilyn Lake and Professor Henry Reynolds | Drawing the Global Colour Line | Melbourne University Press |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award | Non-fiction | Meredith Hooper | The Ferocious Summer: Palmer's Penguins and the Warming of Antarctica | Allen & Unwin |
| Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Non-fiction | Antonio Buti | Sir Ronald Wilson: A Matter of Conscience | University of Western Australia Press |
| Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Western Australian history | Ruth Marchant James | Cottesloe: A Town of Distinction | Town of Cottesloe |

## Deaths

* 11 January – Nancy Phelan, author (born 1913)
* 27 March – Alan Collins, short story writer (born 1928)
* 8 April – John Button, politician and author (born 1933)
* 26 April – Pamela Bone, journalist and author (born 1940)
* 29 April – John Hooker, author (born 1932)
* 21 June – Justina Williams, poet (born 1916)
* 24 August – Patricia Rolfe, short story writer and critic (born 1920)
* 30 September – Eleanor Spence, writer for children (born 1928)
* 30 October – Jacob Rosenberg, poet and memoirist (born 1922)
* 15 November – Ivan Southall, writer for children (born 1921)
* 10 December – Dorothy Porter, poet (born 1954)