# 2010 in Australian literature

This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 2010.

## Events

* 26 January – Peter Goldsworthy is awarded a Member (AM) in the General Division in the Australia Day Honours List.
* February – The "Australian Book Review" magazine conducted a poll of its readers and announces that Cloudstreet by Tim Winton is Australia's favourite novel.
* 22 June – Peter Temple wins the Miles Franklin Award for his novel Truth becoming the first crime novel to do so.

## Major publications
### Literary fiction

* Jon Bauer – Rocks in the Belly
* Carmel Bird – Child of the Twilight
* Ashley Hay – The Body in the Clouds
* Anita Heiss – Manhattan Dreaming
* Toni Jordan – Fall Girl
* Amanda Lohrey – Reading Madame Bovary (short story collection)
* Roger McDonald – When Colts Ran
* Fiona McGregor – Indelible Ink
* Monica McInerney – At Home with the Templetons
* D.B.C. Pierre – Lights Out in Wonderland
* Jessica Rudd – Campaign Ruby
* Kim Scott – That Deadman Dance
* Chris Womersley – Bereft

### Children's and Young Adult fiction

* Alexandra Adornetto – Halo
* Mem Fox – Let's Count Goats!
* Sonya Hartnett – The Midnight Zoo
* Rebecca James – Beautiful Malice
* Alison Lester – Noni the Pony
* Doug MacLeod – The Life of a Teenage Body-Snatcher
* Melina Marchetta – The Piper's Son
* Garth Nix – Lord Sunday
* Markus Zusak – Bridge of Clay

### Science Fiction and Fantasy

* Trudi Canavan – The Ambassador's Mission
* Sara Douglass – The Infinity Gate
* Greg Egan – Zendegi
* Fiona McIntosh – King's Wrath
* Sean McMullen – "Eight Miles"
* Juliet Marillier – Seer of Sevenwaters
* Scott Westerfeld – Behemoth
* Sean Williams
** The Force Unleashed II
** Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance

### Crime and Mystery

* Lenny Bartulin – The Black Russian
* John Birmingham – After America
* Honey Brown – The Good Daughter
* Peter Corris – Torn Apart
* Garry Disher – Wyatt
* Kathryn Fox – Death Mask
* Kerry Greenwood – Dead Man's Chest: A Phryne Fisher Mystery
* Katherine Howell – Cold Justice
* Adrian Hyland – Gunshot Road
* Colleen McCullough – Naked Cruelty
* Geoff McGeachin – The Diggers Rest Hotel
* Tara Moss – The Blood Countess
* P. M. Newton – The Old School
* Malla Nunn – Let the Dead Lie
* Leigh Redhead – Thrill City
* Michael Robotham – Bleed for Me
* Angela Savage – The Half-Child
* David Whish-Wilson – Line of Sight

### Poetry

* Christopher Kelen – The Whole Forest Dancing: Poems on Four Legs in the Morning
* Les Murray – Taller When Prone
* Dorothy Porter – Love Poems
* Peter Porter – The Rest on the Flight: Selected Poems
* Thomas Shapcott – Parts of Us
* John Tranter – Starlight: 150 Poems
* Mark Tredinnick – Fire Diary

### Biography

* Blanche d'Alpuget – Hawke: The Prime Minister
* Jeff Apter – Together Alone: The Story of the Finn Brothers
* Jim Davidson – A Three Cornered Life: The Historian W.K. Hancock
* Malcolm Fraser & Margaret Simons – Malcolm Fraser: The Political Memoirs
* Rob Mundle – Bligh: Master Mariner
* Anne Pender – One Man Show: The Stages of Barry Humphries
* Mark Logue & Peter Conradi – The King's Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy

## Awards and honours
### Lifetime achievement

| Award | Author |
| Christopher Brennan Award | Peter Steele |
| Patrick White Award | David Foster |

### Literary

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| The Age Book of the Year | Alex Miller | Lovesong | Allen & Unwin |
| ALS Gold Medal | David Malouf | Ransom | Knopf Australia |
| Colin Roderick Award | Michael Cathcart | The Water Dreamers | Text Publishing |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Not awarded | | |
| Nita Kibble Literary Award | Shirley Walker | The Ghost at the Wedding | Viking |

### Fiction
#### International

| Award | Region | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Commonwealth Writers' Prize | SE Asia and South Pacific | Best First Book | Glenda Guest | Siddon Rock | Vintage Australia |

#### National

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | David Malouf | Ransom | Random House |
| The Age Book of the Year Award | Alex Miller | Lovesong | Allen & Unwin |
| The Australian/Vogel Literary Award | Not awarded (change of award year date) | | |
| Barbara Jefferis Award | Kristina Olsson | The China Garden | University of Queensland Press |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Fiction | Not awarded | | |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Debut Fiction | Not awarded | | |
| Miles Franklin Award | Peter Temple | Truth | Text Publishing |
| Nita Kibble Literary Award | Shirley Walker | The Ghost at the Wedding | Viking |
| Prime Minister's Literary Awards | Eva Hornung | Dog Boy | Text Publishing |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | J.M. Coetzee | Summertime | Harvill Secker |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | J.M. Coetzee | Summertime | Harvill Secker |
| South Australian Premier's Awards | David Malouf | Ransom | Knopf Australia |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award | Peter Temple | Truth | Text Publishing |
| Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Kim Scott | That Deadman Dance | Picador |

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

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Older Readers | David Metzenthen | Jarvis 24 | Penguin Group |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Younger Readers | Odo Hirsch | Darius Bell and the Glitter Pond | Allen & Unwin |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Picture Book | Gregory Rogers | The Hero of Little Street | Allen & Unwin |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Early Childhood | Lisa Shanahan, illus. Emma Quay | Bear & Chook By the Sea | Lothian |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Children's & YA | Not Awarded | | |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Children's | Allan Baillie | Krakatoa Lighthouse | Penguin Books Australia |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Young People's | Pamela Rushby | When the Hipchicks Went to War | Hachette |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | Children's | Sally Murphy | Toppling | Walker Books |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | Young Adult | Richard Yaxley | Drink the Air | Richard Yaxley |
| South Australian Premier's Awards | Children's | Shaun Tan | Tales from Outer Suburbia | Allen and Unwin |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award | Young Adult Fiction | Kirsty Eagar | Raw Blue | Penguin Group |
| Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Children's | Sally Murphy | Toppling | Walker Books |
| Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Writing for Young Adults | Scott Gardner | Happy as Larry | Allen and Unwin |
| Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Writing for Young Adults | James Roy | Anonymity Jones | Woolshed Press |

### Crime and Mystery
#### National

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Davitt Award | Novel | Marianne Delacourt | Sharp Shooter | Arena |
| Davitt Award | Young adult novel | Justine Larbalestier | Liar | Allen & Unwin |
| Davitt Award | True crime | Ellen Connolly and Candace Sutton | Ladykiller | Allen & Unwin |
| Davitt Award | Readers' choice | Kerry Greenwood | Forbidden Fruit | Allen & Unwin |
| Ned Kelly Award | Novel | Garry Disher | Wyatt | Text Publishing |
| Ned Kelly Award | First novel | Mark Dapin | King of the Cross | Pan Macmillan |
| Ned Kelly Award | True crime | Kathy Marks | Pitcairn: Paradise Lost | Fourth Estate |
| Ned Kelly Award | Lifetime achievement | Peter Doyle | | |

### Science fiction

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Aurealis Award | SF Novel | Marianne de Pierres | Transformation Space | Orbit Books |
| Aurealis Award | SF Short Story | K.J. Bishop | "The House of a Mouse" | Subterrannean Online |
| Aurealis Award | Fantasy Novel | Tansy Rayner Roberts | Power and Majesty | HarperVoyager |
| Aurealis Award | Fantasy Short Story | Thoraiya Dyer | "Yowie" | Twelfth Planet Press (Sprawl) |
| Aurealis Award | Fantasy Short Story | L.L. Hannett and Angela Slatter | "The February Dragon" | Ticonderoga Publications (Scary Kisses) |
| Aurealis Award | Horror Novel | Kirstyn McDermott | Madigan Mine | Pan Macmillan |
| Aurealis Award | Horror Short Story | Richard Harland | "The Fear" | Brimstone Press (Macabre: A Journey Through Australia's Darkest Fears) |
| Australian Shadows Award | Long Fiction | Bob Franklin | Under Stones | Affirm Press |
| Australian Shadows Award | Edited Publication | Angela Challis & Marty Young | Macabre: A Journey through Australia's Darkest Fears | Brimstone Press |
| Australian Shadows Award | Short Fiction | Kirstyn McDermott | "She Said" | Scenes from the Second Storey, Morrigan Books |
| Ditmar Award | Novel | Kaaron Warren | Slights | Angry Robot Books |
| Ditmar Award | Novella/Novelette | Paul Haines | "Wives" | X6 (Coeur de Lion) |
| Ditmar Award | Short Story | Cat Sparks | "Seventeen" | Masques (CSFG) |
| Ditmar Award | Collected Work | Geoffrey Maloney ed. | Slice of Life,Paul Haines | The Mayne Press |

### Poetry

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Bronwyn Lea | The Other Way Out | Giramondo Publishing |
| The Age Book of the Year | Jennifer Maiden | Pirate Rain | Giramondo Publishing |
| Anne Elder Award | Rosanna Licari | An Absence of Saints | University of Queensland Press |
| Grace Leven Prize for Poetry | David Musgrave | Phantom Limb | John Leonard Press |
| Grace Leven Prize for Poetry | LK Holt | Patience, Mutiny | John Leonard Press |
| Grace Leven Prize for Poetry | Petra White | The Simplified World | John Leonard Press |
| Mary Gilmore Prize | Joanna Preston | The Summer King | Otago University Press |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Jordie Albiston | the sonnet according to 'm' | John Leonard Press |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | Peter Boyle | Apocrypha | Vagabond Press |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award | Anna Kerdijk Nicholson | Possession | Five Islands Press |
| Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Mark Tredinnick | Fire Diary | Puncher and Wattmann |

### Drama

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Script | Jane Campion | Bright Star | BBC Films; Screen Australia; UK Film Council; New South Wales Film and Television Office |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Script | Aviva Ziegler | Fairweather Man | Fury Productions |
| Patrick White Playwrights' Award | Award | Melissa Bubnic | Beached | Currency Press |
| Patrick White Playwrights' Award | Fellowship | Raimondo Cortese | | |

### Non-Fiction

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Non-Fiction | Jill Roe | Stella Miles Franklin | Fourth Estate/HarperCollins |
| The Age Book of the Year | Non-fiction | Kate Howarth | Ten Hail Marys | Penguin Books |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Eve Pownall Award for Information Books | Peter Macinnis | Australian Backyard Explorer | National Library of Australia |
| Davitt Award | True crime | Ellen Connolly and Candace Sutton | Lady Killer | Allen & Unwin |
| National Biography Award | Biography | Brian Matthews | Manning Clark: A Life | Allen & Unwin |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Non-Fiction | Not awarded | | |
| Prime Minister's Literary Awards | Non-fiction | Grace Karskens | The Colony: A History of Early Sydney | Allen & Unwin |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Non-fiction | Paul McGeough | Kill Khalid: Mossad's failed hit ... and the rise of Hamas | Allen & Unwin |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | Australian History | Bain Attwood | Possession: Batman's Treaty and the Matter of History | Melbourne University Publishing |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | Community and Regional History | Pauline Curby | Randwick | Randwick Municipal Council |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | General History | Lisa Ford | Settler Sovereignty: Jurisdiction and Indigenous People in America and Australia, 1788-1836 | Harvard University Press |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | Young People's | Jackie French | The Night They Stormed Eureka | HarperCollins |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | Non-fiction | Mark Tredinnick | The Blue Plateau: A Landscape Memoir | UQP |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | History | Ian Hoskins | Sydney Harbour: A history, | NewSouth Books |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award | Non-fiction | Brenda Walker | Reading by Moonlight: How Books Saved a Life | Penguin Books |
| Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Non-fiction | Jim Davidson | The Historian: W K Hancock | University of New South Wales Press |
| Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Western Australian history | Susanna Iuliano | Vite Italiane, Italian Lives in Western Australia | University of Western Australia Press |

## Deaths

* 15 March — Patricia Wrightson, author (born 1921)
* 23 April — Peter Porter, author (born 1929)
* 29 May — Randolph Stow, author (died in England)(born 1935)
* 9 July — Jessica Anderson, author (born 1916)
* 19 July — Jon Cleary, author (born 1917)
* 8 September — Donald Horne, author (born 1921)
* 6 October — David Rowbotham, author (born 1924)
* 14 November — Bobbi Sykes, poet and author (born 1943)
* 14 December — Ruth Park, author (born 1917)