# 2024 in Australian literature

This is a list of historical events and publications of Australian literature during 2024.

## Events

* Both the chief executive and deputy chairman quit over promotional material released for the 2024 Melbourne Writers Festival
* Major Australian online bookseller Booktopia enters voluntary administration as it explores options for "sale and/or recapitalisation."

## Major publications
### Literary fiction

* Amy Brown – My Brilliant Sister
* Shankari Chandran – Safe Haven
* Melanie Cheng – The Burrow
* Charmian Clift – The End of the Morning
* Michelle de Kretser – Theory & Practice
* Nikki Gemmell – Wing
* Rodney Hall – Vortex
* Anita Heiss – Dirrayawadha
* Gail Jones – One Another
* Meg Keneally – Free
* Alex Miller – The Deal
* Stephen Orr - Shining Like the Sun
* Jock Serong – Cherrywood
* Nardi Simpson – The Belburd
* Tim Winton – Juice

### Short story collections

* Ceridwen Dovey – Only the Astronauts
* Fiona McFarlane – Highway 13

### Crime and mystery

* Garry Disher – Sanctuary
* Candice Fox – Devil's Kitchen
* Sulari Gentill – The Mystery Writer
* Chris Hammer – The Valley
* Dervla McTiernan – What Happened to Nina?
* Louise Milligan – Pheasants Nest

### Science fiction and Fantasy

* Greg Egan
** "Death and the Gorgon"
** Morphotrophic
* Kate Forsyth – Psyckhe
* Ben Peek – "Shadow Films"
* Angela Slatter – The Briar Book of the Dead
* Kaaron Warren – The Underhistory

### Children's and young adult

* Lili Wilkinson – Deep is the Fen

### Poetry

* Judith Beveridge – Tintinnabulum
* Nam Le – 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem
* Jeanine Leane – gawimarra gathering

### Plays

* Melanie Tait – The Queen's Nanny
* David Williamson – The Great Divide

### Non-Fiction

* James Bradley – Deep Water
* Helen Garner – The Season

### Memoir

* Susan Hampton – Anything Can Happen

## Awards and honours

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

### Lifetime achievement

| Award | Author |
| Melbourne Prize for Literature | Alexis Wright |
| Patrick White Award | Pi O |

### Literary

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| ALS Gold Medal | Alexis Wright | Praiseworthy | Giramondo Publishing |
| Colin Roderick Award | Melissa Lucashenko | Edenglassie | University of Queensland Press |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | David Marr | Killing for Country: A Family Story | Black Inc |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Ali Cobby Eckermann | She Is the Earth | Magabala Books |
| Stella Prize | Alexis Wright | Praiseworthy | Giramondo Publishing |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Grace Yee | Chinese Fish | Giramondo Publishing |

### Fiction

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| The Age Book of the Year | Tony Birch | Women & Children | University of Queensland Press |
| ARA Historical Novel Prize | Melissa Lucashenko | Edenglassie | University of Queensland Press |
| The Australian/Vogel Literary Award | Kristina Ross | First Year | Allen and Unwin |
| Barbara Jefferis Award (joint winners) | Sara M Saleh | Songs for the Dead and the Living | Affirm |
| Barbara Jefferis Award (joint winners) | Lucy Treloar | Days of Innocence and Wonder | Picador |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Fiction | Melissa Lucashenko | Edenglassie | University of Queensland Press |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Debut Fiction | Jane Harrison | The Visitors | Fourth Estate |
| Miles Franklin Award | Alexis Wright | Praiseworthy | Giramondo Publishing |
| Prime Minister's Literary Awards | Andre Dao | Anam | Hamish Hamilton |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Angela O'Keeffe | The Sitter | University of Queensland Press |
| Queensland Literary Awards | Sharlene Allsopp | The Great Undoing | Ultimo |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Melissa Lucashenko | Edenglassie | University of Queensland Press |

### Children and Young Adult

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| ARA Historical Novel Prize | Children and Young Adult | Beverley McWilliams | Spies in the Sky | Pantera Press |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Older Readers | Karen Comer | Grace Notes | Lothian |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Younger Readers | Tristan Bancks | Scar Town | Puffin |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Picture Book | Kelly Canby | Timeless | Fremantle Press |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Early Childhood | Briony Stewart | Gymnastica Fantastica! | Lothian |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Eve Pownall Award for Information Books | Isolde Martyn & Robyn Ridgeway, illus by Louise Hogan | Country Town | Fremantle Press |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Children's | Jaclyn Moriarty | The Impossible Secret of Lillian Velvet | Allen & Unwin |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Young Adult | Melissa Kang & Yumi Stynes | Welcome to Sex | Hardie Grant |
| Prime Minister's Literary Awards | Children's | Violet Wadrill, Topsy Dodd Ngarnjal, Leah Leaman, Cecelia Edwards, Cassandra Algy, Felicity Meakins, Briony Barr & Gregory Crocetti | Tamarra: A Story of Termites on Gurindji Country | Hardie Grant |
| Prime Minister's Literary Awards | Young Adult | Will Kostakis | We Could Be Something | Allen & Unwin |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Children's | Levi Pinfold | Paradise Sands: A story of enchantment | Walker Books |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Young People's | Helena Fox | The Quiet and the Loud | Pan Macmillan Australia |
| Queensland Literary Awards | Children's | Karen Comer | Sunshine on Vinegar Street | Allen & Unwin |
| Queensland Literary Awards | Young Adult | sydney knoo | The Spider and Her Demons | Penguin |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Young Adult Fiction | Lili Wilkinson | A Hunger of Thorns | Allen & Unwin |
| Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Children's | Dianne Wolfer | Scout and the Rescue Dogs | Walker Books |

### Crime and Mystery
#### National

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Davitt Award | Novel | Monica Vuu | When One of Us Hurts | Pan Macmillan |
| Davitt Award | Young adult novel | Amy Doak | Eleanor Jones Is Not a Murderer | Penguin Books |
| Davitt Award | Children's novel | Lucinda Gifford | The Wolves of Greycoat Hall | Walker Books |
| Davitt Award | Non-fiction | Rebecca Hazel | The Schoolgirl, Her Teacher and His Wife | Vintage Books |
| Davitt Award | Debut | Christine Keighery | The Half Brother | Ultimo |
| Davitt Award | Readers' choice | Alison Goodman | The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies | HarperCollins |
| Ned Kelly Award | Novel | Sally Hepworth | Darling Girls | Pan Macmillan |
| Ned Kelly Award | First novel | Matt Francis | Murder in the Pacific: Ifira Point | Big Sky Publishing |
| Ned Kelly Award | True crime | Nick McKenzie | Crossing the Line | Hachette Australia |

### Non-Fiction

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| The Age Book of the Year | Non-Fiction | Ross McMullin | Life So Full of Promise | Scribe |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Non-Fiction | David Marr | Killing for Country: A Family Story | Black Inc |
| Indie Book Awards Book of the Year | Illustrated Non-Fiction | Wendy Cooper | The Bird Art of William T. Cooper | National Library of Australia |
| National Biography Award | Biography | Lamisse Hamouda | The Shape of Dust: a father wrongly imprisoned. A daughter's quest to free him | Pantera Press |
| Prime Minister's Literary Awards | Non-Fiction | Daniel Browning | Close to the Subject: Selected Works | Magabala Books |
| Prime Minister's Literary Awards | Australian History | Ryan Cropp | Donald Horne: A Life in the Lucky Country | La Trobe University Press |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Non-Fiction | Christine Kenneally | Ghosts of the Orphanage | Hachette Australia |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | Australian History | Alecia Simmonds | Courting: An Intimate History of Love and the Law | La Trobe University Press, with Black Inc |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | Community and Regional History | Shauna Bostock | Reaching Through Time: Finding my family's stories | Allen & Unwin |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | General History | Katharine E. McGregor | Systemic Silencing: Activism, Memory, and Sexual Violence in Indonesia | University of Wisconsin Press |
| Queensland Literary Awards | Non-Fiction | Abbas El-Zein | Bullet, Paper, Rock: A Memoir of Words and Wars | Upswell |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Non-Fiction | Ellen van Neerven | Personal Score: Sport, Culture, Identity | University of Queensland Press |

### Poetry

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Anne Elder Award | Sara M. Saleh | The Flirtation of Girls/Ghazal el-Banat | University of Queensland Press |
| Mary Gilmore Award | Dan Hogan | Secret Third Thing | Cordite Books |
| Prime Minister's Literary Awards | Amy Crutchfield | Aphrodite | Giramondo Publishing |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Tais Rose Wae | Riverbed Sky Songs | Vagabond Press |
| Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection | L. K. Holt | Three Books | Vagabond Press |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Grace Yee | Chinese Fish | Giramondo Publishing |

### Drama

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Script | Anna Barnes | Safe Home, Episode 1 | Kindling Pictures |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Play | Nicholas Brown | Sex Magick | Griffin Theatre Company & Currency Press |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | | S. Shakthidharan and Eamon Flack | The Jungle and the Sea | Belvoir St Theatre & Currency Press |

## Deaths

* 13 January – David Hansen, art historian (born 1958)
* 4 February – Lowitja O'Donoghue, public administrator and Indigenous rights advocate (born 1932)
* 19 February – Marion Halligan, novelist, short story writer, reviewer and essayist (born 1940)
* 25 March – Ian Heads, historian and journalist (born 1943)
* 30 April – Lyndall Ryan, historian (born 1943)
* 10 May – Hugh Edwards, journalist, author and marine photographer (born 1933 in Scotland)
* 24 July – Ray Lawler, playwright (born 1921)
* 31 August – Jack Hibberd, playwright (born 1940)
* 4 October – Barbara Blackman, writer, essayist, poet, librettist, broadcaster and philanthropist (born 1928)
* 30 November – Susan Duncan, journalist, memoirist and novelist (born 1951)
* 10 December – Brenda Walker, novelist (born 1957)
Unknown date
* Eric Beach, poet and playwright (born in New Zealand, 1947)