# 2011 in Australian literature

This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 2011.

## Events

* Four authors are named in the Queen's Birthday Honours: Peter FitzSimons, Susanne Gervay, Roland Perry, and Chris Wallace-Crabbe
* Thomas Keneally donates his personal library to the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts
* Australian libraries and library associations join together to make 2012 the National Year of Reading
* Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) declares Saturday, 20 August 2011, the inaugural National Bookshop Day
* Final issue of the "Australian Literary Review" to be published in October 2011
* Hannie Rayson is the first Australian to be awarded a commission with New York’s Manhattan Theatre Club
* Friends and family of biographer Hazel Rowley establish funds to commemorate Rowley’s life and her writing legacy via the Hazel Rowley Literary Fund
* Alison Lester and Boori Monty Pryor are appointed to be Australia’s first Children’s Laureates
* The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) appoints Robert Adamson to hold the inaugural CAL Chair in Australian Poetry

## Major publications
### Literary fiction

* Tony Birch – Blood
* Geraldine Brooks – Caleb's Crossing
* Annah Faulkner – The Beloved
* Anna Funder – All That I Am
* Kate Grenville – Sarah Thornhill
* Gail Jones – Five Bells
* Jeanine Leane – Purple Threads
* Gillian Mears – Foal's Bread
* Alex Miller – Autumn Laing
* Frank Moorhouse – Cold Light
* Favel Parrett – Past The Shallows
* Elliot Perlman – The Street Sweeper
* Craig Sherborne – The Amateur Science of Love
* Rohan Wilson – The Roving Party
* Charlotte Wood – Animal People

### Children's and Young Adult fiction

* Alexandra Adornetto – Hades
* Em Bailey – Shift
* J. C. Burke – Pig Boy
* Isobelle Carmody – The Sending
* Ursula Dubosarsky – The Golden Day
* Scott Gardner – The Dead I Know
* Steven Herrick – Black Painted Fingernails
* Andrew McGahan – The Coming of the Whirlpool
* Melina Marchetta – Froi of the Exiles
* Vikki Wakefield – All I Ever Wanted
* Scott Westerfeld – Goliath

### Science fiction and fantasy

* Max Barry – Machine Man
* Trudi Canavan – The Rogue
* Greg Egan – The Clockwork Rocket
* Will Elliott – Shadow
* Kim Falconer – Road to the Soul
* Pamela Freeman – Ember and Ash
* Richard Harland – Liberator
* Glenda Larke – Stormlord's Exile
* Kim Westwood – The Courier's New Bicycle

### Crime and mystery

* Alan Carter – Prime Cut
* Peter Corris – Follow the Money
* Garry Disher – Whispering Death
* Sulari Gentill – A Decline in Prophets
* Kerry Greenwood – Cooking the Books
* Malcolm Knox – The Life
* Stuart Littlemore – Harry Curry: Counsel of Choice
* Barry Maitland – Chelsea Mansions
* Kel Robertson – Rip Off
* Michael Robotham – The Wreckage

### Poetry

* Ali Alizadeh – Ashes in the Air
* Joanne Burns – Amphora
* Barry Hill – Lines for Birds: Poems and Paintings
* John Kinsella – Armour
* Geoffrey Lehmann and Robert Gray – Australian Poetry Since 1788 (edited)
* Jaya Savige – Surface to Air

### Biography

* Julian Assange – Julian Assange: The Unauthorised Autobiography
* A. J. Brown – Michael Kirby: Paradoxes and Principles
* Eileen Chanin – Book Life: The Life and Times of David Scott Mitchell 1836–1907
* Raimond Gaita – After Romulus
* Mark McKenna – An Eye for Eternity: The Life of Manning Clark
* Susan Mitchell – Tony Abbott: A Man's Man
* Christine Nixon – Fair Cop
* Sue Pieters-Hawke – Hazel: My Mother's Story
* Alice Pung – Her Father's Daughter
* David Robert Walker – Not Dark Yet: A Personal History
* Sarah Watt, William McInnes – Worse Things Happen at Sea

## Awards and honours
### Lifetime achievement

| Award | Author |
| Christopher Brennan Award | Jennifer Harrison |
| Patrick White Award | Robert Adamson |

### Literary

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| The Age Book of the Year | Fiona McGregor | Indelible Ink | Scribe Publishing |
| ALS Gold Medal | Kim Scott | That Deadman Dance | Picador |
| Colin Roderick Award | Karen Kissane | Worst of Days: Inside the Black Saturday Firestorm | Hachette Australia |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Anh Do | The Happiest Refugee | Allen & Unwin |
| Nita Kibble Literary Award | Brenda Walker | Reading by Moonlight | Hamish Hamilton |
| Victorian Prize for Literature | Kim Scott | That Deadman Dance | Picador |

### Fiction
#### International

| Award | Region | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Commonwealth Writers' Prize | SE Asia and South Pacific | Best Book | Kim Scott | That Deadman Dance | Picador |

#### National

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Not awarded | | |
| The Age Book of the Year Award | Fiona McGregor | Indelible Ink | Scribe Publications |
| The Australian/Vogel Literary Award | Rohan Wilson | The Roving Party | Allen & Unwin |
| Barbara Jefferis Award | G.L. Osborne | Come Inside | Clouds of Magellan |
| Colin Roderick Award | Gillian Mears | Foal's Bread | Allen and Unwin |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Fiction | Chris Womersley | Bereft | Scribe |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Debut Fiction | Jon Bauer | Rocks in the Belly | Scribe |
| Miles Franklin Award | Kim Scott | That Deadman Dance | Picador |
| Prime Minister's Literary Awards | Stephen Daisley | Traitor | Text Publishing |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Alex Miller | Lovesong | Allen & Unwin |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | Amanda Lohrey | Reading Madame Bovary | Black Inc. |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award | Kim Scott | That Deadman Dance | Picador |
| Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Anna Funder | All That I Am | Penguin Books |

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

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Older Readers | Sonya Hartnett | The Midnight Zoo | Viking Books |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Younger Readers | Isobelle Carmody | The Red Wind | Viking Books |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Picture Book | Jeanie Baker | Mirror | Walker Books |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Picture Book | Nicki Greenberg | Hamlet | Allen & Unwin |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Early Childhood | Jan Ormerod, illus. Freya Blackwood | Maudie Bear | Little Hare Books |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Children's & YA | Jeannie Baker | Mirror | Walker Books |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Children's | Sophie Masson | My Australian Story: The Hunt for Ned Kelly | Scholastic Australia |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Young People's | Cath Crowley | Graffiti Moon | Pan Macmillan Australia |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | Children's | Michael Gerard Bauer | Just a Dog | Omnibus Books |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | Young Adult | Barry Jonsberg | Being Here | Allen & Unwin |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award | Young Adult Fiction | Cassandra Golds | The Three Loves of Persimmon | Penguin Group |
| Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Children's | Michelle Gillespie & Sonia Martinez | Sam, Grace and the Shipwreck | Fremantle Press |
| Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Writing for Young Adults | Penni Russon | Only Ever Always | Allen and Unwin |

### Crime and Mystery
#### National

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Davitt Award | Novel | Katherine Howell | Cold Justice | Pan Macmillan |
| Davitt Award | Young Adult novel | Penny Matthews | A Girl Like Me | Penguin |
| Davitt Award | True crime | Colleen Egan | Murderer No More | Allen & Unwin |
| Davitt Award | Readers' choice | P. M. Newton | The Old School | Viking |
| Ned Kelly Award | Novel | Geoffrey McGeachin | The Diggers Rest Hotel | Penguin Books |
| Ned Kelly Award | First novel | Alan Carter | Prime Cut | Fremantle Press |
| Ned Kelly Award | True crime | Geesche Jacobsen | Abandoned - The Sad Death of Dianne Brimble | Allen & Unwin |
| Ned Kelly Award | Lifetime achievement | Not awarded | | |

### Science fiction

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Aurealis Award | SF Novel | Kim Westwood | The Courier's New Bicycle | HarperVoyager |
| Aurealis Award | SF Short Story | Robert N. Stephenson | "Rains of la Strange" | Coeur de Lion Publishing (Anywhere but Earth) |
| Aurealis Award | Fantasy Novel | Pamela Freeman | Ember and Ash | Hachette |
| Aurealis Award | Fantasy Short Story | Thoraiya Dyer | "Fruit of the Pipal Tree" | FableCroft Publishing (After the Rain) |
| Aurealis Award | Horror Short Story | Paul Haines | "The Past is a Bridge Best Left Burnt" | Brimstone Press (The Last Days of Kali Yuga) |
| Aurealis Award | Horror Short Story | Lisa L. Hannett | "The Short Go: a Future in Eight Seconds" | Ticonderoga Publications (Bluegrass Symphony) |
| Australian Shadows Awards | Novel | No Award | | |
| Australian Shadows Awards | Long Fiction | Paul Haines | "The Past is a Bridge Best Left Burnt" | Brimstone Press (The Last Days of Kali Yuga) |
| Australian Shadows Awards | Short Fiction | Amanda J. Spedding | "Shovel Man Joe" | Shades of Sentience, May 2011 |
| Australian Shadows Awards | Edited Publication | Russell B. Farr, editor | Dead Red Heart | Ticonderoga Publications |
| Australian Shadows Awards | Collected Works | Brett McBean | Tales of Sin and Madness | LegumeMan Books |
| Ditmar Award | Novel | Tansy Rayner Roberts | Power and Majesty | HarperVoyager |
| Ditmar Award | Novella/Novelette | Thoraiya Dyer | "The Company Articles of Edward Teach" | Twelfth Planet Press |
| Ditmar Award | Short Story | Cat Sparks | "All the Love in the World" | Twelfth Planet Press (Sprawl) |
| Ditmar Award | Short Story | Kirstyn McDermott | "She Said" | Morrigan Books (Scenes From the Second Storey) |
| Ditmar Award | Collected Work | Alisa Krasnostein ed. | Sprawl | Twelfth Planet Press |

### Poetry

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Not awarded | | |
| The Age Book of the Year | John Tranter | Starlight: 150 Poems | University of Queensland Press |
| Anne Elder Award | Rosanna Licari | The Weather of Tongues | Sunline |
| Grace Leven Prize for Poetry | Not awarded | | |
| Mary Gilmore Prize | Not awarded | | |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Jennifer Maiden | Pirate Rain | Giramondo Publishing |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | John Tranter | Starlight: 150 Poems | University of Queensland Press |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award | Cate Kennedy | The Taste of River Water | Scribe |
| Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Tracy Ryan | The Argument | Fremantle Press |

### Drama

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Play | Patricia Cornelius | Do Not Go Gentle | Currency Press |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Script | Debra Oswald | Offspring | Southern Star Entertainment |
| Patrick White Playwrights' Award | Award | Phillip Kavanagh | Little Borders | |
| Patrick White Playwrights' Award | Fellowship | Patricia Cornelius | | |

### Non-Fiction

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Non-Fiction | Not awarded | |
| The Age Book of the Year | Non-fiction | Jim Davidson | A Three-Cornered Life | UNSW Press |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Eve Pownall Award for Information Books | Ursula Dubosarsky, illus. Tohby Riddle | The Return of the Word Spy | Viking Books |
| Davitt Award | True crime | Colleen Egan | Murderer No More | Allen & Unwin |
| National Biography Award | Biography | Alasdair McGregor | Grand Obsessions: The Life and Work of Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin | Lantern |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Non-Fiction | Anh Do | The Happiest Refugee | Allen & Unwin |
| Prime Minister's Literary Awards | Non-fiction | Rod Moss | The Hard Light of Day | University of Queensland Press |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Non-fiction | Malcolm Fraser and Margaret Simons | Malcolm Fraser: The Political Memoirs | Melbourne University Publishing |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | Australian History | Penny Russell | Savage or Civilised?: Manners in Colonial Australia | UNSW Press |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | Community and Regional History | Stephen Gapps | Cabrogal to Fairfield City: A History of a Multicultural Community | Fairfield City Council |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | General History | Shane White, Stephen Garton, Stephen Robertson and Graham White | Playing the Numbers: Gambling in Harlem Between the Wars | Harvard University Press |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | Young People's | Kirsty Murray | India Dark | Allen & Unwin |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | Non-fiction | Mark McKenna | An Eye for Eternity: The Life of Manning Clark | Melbourne University Publishing |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | History | Alan Powell | Northern Voyagers: Australia's monsoon coast in maritime history | Australian Scholarly Publishing |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award | Non-fiction | Mark McKenna | An Eye for Eternity: The Life of Manning Clark | Melbourne University Publishing |
| Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Non-fiction | Alice Pung | Her Father's Daughter | Black Inc. |
| Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Western Australian history | Fiona Skyring | Justice: A History of the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia | University of Western Australia Press |

## Deaths

* 1 March – Hazel Rowley, author (born 1951)
* 15 June – Anne Godfrey-Smith, poet and theatre producer/director (born 1921)
* 20 June – T. A. G. Hungerford, author (born 1915)
* 2 September – Bernard Smith, art historian (born 1916)
* 27 September – Sara Douglass, author (born 1957)
* 4 October – Di Gribble, editor and publisher (born 1942)
* 8 December – Zelman Cowen, jurist (born 1919)
Unknown date
* May – Robert J. Merritt, playwright (born 1945)