2009 in Australian literature - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The year 2009 in Australian literature involves some significant new books, drama, poetry and events.

For an overview of world literature see 2009 in literature
2009 in literature
The year 2009 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*8 October - Romanian-born German novelist Herta Müller wins the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature....

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See also:
2008 in Australian literature

2008 in Australian literature

The year 2008 in Australian literature involves some significant new books, drama, poetry and events.For an overview of world literature see 2008 in literature.See also:2007 in Australian literature,2008 in Australia,...

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2009 in Australia

2009 in Australia

-Incumbents:*Monarch – Queen Elizabeth II*Governor-General – Quentin Bryce*Prime Minister – Kevin Rudd-Premiers and Chief Ministers:*Premier of New South Wales – Nathan Rees , then Kristina Keneally*Premier of South Australia – Mike Rann...

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2010 in Australian literature.

Events

HarperCollins takes over ABC Books - the publishing arm of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation .
Caro Llewellyn, resigns as director of the new Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas (now called the Wheeler Centre) in Melbourne before taking up the role. Chrissy Sharp, the Australian general manager of Sadler's Wells Theatre in London, is appointed to take her place.
The Australia-Asia Literary Award
Australia-Asia Literary Award
Australia-Asia Literary Award was an initiative of the Government of Western Australia Department of Culture and the Arts. It was one of the richest literary prizes in the region, indeed the world, with a purse of A$110,000. The Award was established in 2007. The first and only winner was...

, based in Western Australia, is suspended..

Literary fiction

Parrot and Olivier in America
Parrot and Olivier in America
Parrot and Olivier in America is a novel by Australian writer Peter Carey. It was on the shortlist of six books for the 2010 Man Booker Prize....

- Peter Carey
The Lost life - Steven Carroll
Steven Carroll
Steven Carroll is an Australian novelist. He was born in Melbourne, Victoria and studied at La Trobe University. He has taught English at secondary school level, and drama at RMIT...
The Death of Bunny Munro - Nick Cave
Nick Cave
Nicholas Edward "Nick" Cave is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional film actor.He is best known for his work as a frontman of the critically acclaimed rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in 1984, a group known for its eclectic influences and...
Black Dust Dancing - Tracy Crisp
The Book of Emmett - Deborah Forster
Reunion - Andrea Goldsmith
Andrea Goldsmith
-Life:Goldsmith was born in Melbourne, Victoria, to an Australian-Jewish family. She started learning the piano as a young child, and music remains an abiding passion. She initially trained as a speech pathologist and worked for several years with children with severe communication impairment until...
Valley of Grace - Marion Halligan
Marion Halligan
Marion Mildred Halligan AM is an Australian writer and novelist. She was born and educated in Newcastle, New South Wales, and worked as a school teacher and journalist before publishing her first short stories. Halligan has served as chairperson of the Literature Board of the Australia Council and...
Butterfly - Sonya Hartnett
Sonya Hartnett
Sonya Hartnett is an Australian author.Hartnett writes fiction variously for children, young adults and adults and has won numerous prizes and awards, having been described as "the finest Australian writer of her generation". She wrote her first novel, Trouble All the Way, at the age of thirteen...
Dog Boy - Eva Hornung
Pescador's Wake - Katherine Johnson
The Marriage Club - Kate Legge
Ransom - David Malouf
David Malouf
David George Joseph Malouf is an acclaimed Australian writer. He was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2000, his 1993 novel Remembering Babylon won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1996, he won the inaugural Australia-Asia Literary Award in 2008, and he was...
The Diamond Anchor - Jennifer Mills
Jennifer Mills
Jennifer Mills is an Australian novelist, short story writer and poet. She is the author of the novels 'The Diamond Anchor' and 'Gone' , both published by University of Queensland Press, and a chapbook of poems, Treading Earth....
The Virtuoso - Sonia Orchard
Headlong - Susan Varga

Children's and Young Adult fiction

Krakatoa Lighthouse - Allan Baille
Girl Next Door - Alyssa Brugman
Alyssa Brugman
Alyssa Brugman is an Australian author of fiction for young adults. She was born in Rathmines, a suburb of Lake Macquarie, Australia and attended five public schools before completing a Marketing Degree at the University of Newcastle. She currently resides in Hunter Valley.-Career:Brugman has...
The Winds of Heaven - Judith Clarke
The Nest - Paul Jennings
Paul Jennings
Paul Jennings may refer to:* Paul Jennings , Australian children's author* Paul Jennings , UK humorist...
How to Ditch Your Fairy - Justine Larbalestier
Justine Larbalestier
Justine Larbalestier is an Australian young-adult fiction author. She is best known for the Magic or Madness trilogy: Magic or Madness, Magic Lessons and Magic's Child...
The Madman of Venice - Sophie Masson
Sophie Masson
Sophie Masson is a French-Australian fantasy and children's author.-Biography:Sophie Masson was born in Indonesia of French parents who are of mixed ancestry...
Jarvis 24 - David Metzenthen
The Lucky Ones - Tohby Riddle
Tohby Riddle
Tohby Riddle is an Australian cartoonist and picture-book creator. In 2005 he became editor of The School Magazine, in which his illustrations, non-fiction pieces and poems appear regularly...
The Scarecrow - Sean Williams

Crime and Mystery

High Noon in Nimbin - Robert G. Barrett
Robert G. Barrett
Robert G. Barrett is a popular Australian author of numerous books, most of them featuring the fictional Australian character Les Norton. He has also written others which are single book story. 'So What Do You Reckon?' is a collection of Robert's columns from when he was a columnist for the...
Move to Strike - Sydney Bauer
The Iron Heart - Marshall Browne
Marshall Browne
Marshall Browne is an Australian crime fiction writer.A merchant banker he has lived in Hong Kong, London, and Bhutan. He now lives in Melbourne...
Deep Water - Peter Corris
Peter Corris
Peter Robert Corris is an Australian academic, historian, journalist and a novelist of historical and crime fiction...
Blood Moon - Garry Disher
Garry Disher
Garry Disher is an Australian author of crime fiction and children's literature.- Awards :*Ned Kelly Awards for Crime Writing, Best Novel, 2007: winner for Chain of Evidence...
Black Ice - Leah Giarratano
Leah Giarratano
Leah Giarratano is a clinical psychologist and author who specialises in a number of areas including psychopathology and trauma counselling.She has written a number of novels with themes which are related to her work experiences...
Dark Country - Bronwyn Parry

Biographies

Boy He Cry: An Island Odyssey – Roger Averill
Roger Averill
Roger Averill was an American politician who was Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut.-Early life:Roger Averill was born in Salisbury, Connecticut. Some of his ancestors were among the earliest European settlers of Connecticut. His grandfathers, Samuel Averill and John Whittlesey, were natives of...
Will It Be Funny Tomorrow, Billy?: Misadventures in Music – Stephen Cummings
Stephen Cummings
Stephen Donald Cummings is an Australian rock singer-songwriter and writer. He was lead singer of Melbourne-based rock band, The Sports, during 1976–1981, followed by a solo career which has met with critical acclaim but has had limited commercial success...
Harry M Miller: Confessions of a Not-So-Secret Agent – Harry M. Miller
Harry M. Miller
-Early career:Born in New Zealand, Miller grew up in Grey Lynn, Auckland, and moved to Australia in 1963, where he established a company called Pan Pacific Productions with Keith and Dennis Wong, owners of the noted Sydney nightclub "Chequers"...

with Peter Holder
Manning Clark: A Life – Mark McKenna
Shots – Don Walker
Don Walker (musician)
Don Walker is an Australian musician and songwriter known for writing many of the hits for Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel. He played piano and keyboard with the band from 1973 to 1983, when they disbanded. He has since continued to record and tour, both solo and with Tex, Don and Charlie,...
Choir Man – Jonathon Welch
Jonathon Welch
Jonathon Welch is a choral conductor and singer from Melbourne, Australia.Welch was the 2008 winner of the Australian Local Hero Awardin recognition of his work with The Choir of Hard Knocks, a choir made up of homeless and disadvantaged singers from Melbourne...
Leo 'Rumpole' McKern: An Accidental Actor – George Whaley
David Williamson: Behind the Scenes – Kristin Williamson
Kristin Williamson
Kristin Löfvén Williamson is an Australian journalist and author.Kristin Williamson was born in Melbourne, went to school in Geelong and trained as a teacher. On graduating she took up a scholarship at the University of Florence in Italy to study Italian...

International

Award	Region	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
Commonwealth Writers' Prize Commonwealth Writers' Prize Commonwealth Writers is an initiative by the Commonwealth Foundation to unearth, develop and promote the best new fiction from across the Commonwealth. It's flagship are two literary awards and a website...	SE Asia and South Pacific	Best Novel	Christos Tsiolkas Christos Tsiolkas -Biography:He was born and grew up in Melbourne and was educated at Blackburn High School and the University of Melbourne where he completed an Arts Degree in 1987. www.austlit.edu.au. Retrieved 2007-07-22. He edited the student newspaper Farrago in 1988....	The Slap	Allen & Unwin Allen & Unwin Allen & Unwin, formerly a major British publishing house, is now an independent book publisher and distributor based in Australia. The Australian directors have been the sole owners of the Allen & Unwin name since effecting a management buy out at the time the UK parent company, Unwin Hyman, was...
	SE Asia and South Pacific

National

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
Barbara Jefferis Award Barbara Jefferis Award The Barbara Jefferis Award is an Australian Literary award prize. The award was created in 2007 after being endowed by John Hinde upon his death to commemorate his late wife, author Barbara Jefferis. It is funded by his $1 million bequest....		Helen Garner Helen Garner Helen Garner is an award-winning Australian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist.-Life:Garner was born in Geelong, Victoria, the eldest of six children. She attended Manifold Heights State School, Ocean Grove State School and then The Hermitage in Geelong...	The Spare Room The Spare Room The Spare Room is a novel by Australian writer Helen Garner, set over the course of three weeks while the narrator, Helen, cares for a friend dying of bowel cancer. The Spare Room was published in 2008.- Plot summary:...	Text Publishing
The Age Book of the Year The Age Book of the Year The Age Book of the Year Awards are annual literary awards presented by Melbourne's The Age newspaper. The awards were first presented in 1974. Since 1998 they have been presented as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival...	Fiction	Steven Amsterdam	Things We Didn't See Coming	Sleepers Publishing
ALS Gold Medal ALS Gold Medal The Australian Literature Society Gold Medal is awarded annually by the Association for the Study of Australian Literature for “an outstanding literary work in the preceding calendar year.” From 1928 to 1974 it was awarded by the Australian Literature Society, then from 1983 by the Association for...		Christos Tsiolkas Christos Tsiolkas -Biography:He was born and grew up in Melbourne and was educated at Blackburn High School and the University of Melbourne where he completed an Arts Degree in 1987. www.austlit.edu.au. Retrieved 2007-07-22. He edited the student newspaper Farrago in 1988....	The Slap	Allen & Unwin Allen & Unwin Allen & Unwin, formerly a major British publishing house, is now an independent book publisher and distributor based in Australia. The Australian directors have been the sole owners of the Allen & Unwin name since effecting a management buy out at the time the UK parent company, Unwin Hyman, was...
The Australian/Vogel Literary Award The Australian/Vogel Literary Award The Australian/Vogel Literary Award is an Australian literary award for unpublished manuscripts by writers under the age of 35. The prize money, currently A$20,000, is the richest and most prestigious award for an unpublished manuscript in Australia...		Lisa Lang	Utopian Man
		Kristel Thornell	Night Street
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards The New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards were established in 1979 by the New South Wales Premier Neville Wran. Commenting on its purpose, Wran said: "We want the arts to take, and be seen to take, their proper place in our social priorities...	Fiction	Joan London Joan London Joan London is the name of:* Joan London , Australian fiction author* Joan London , California author and daughter of Jack London...	The Good Parents The Good Parents The Good Parents is the second full-length novel written by Joan London. It was first published in 2008.The book concerns an eighteen year old girl, Maya de Jong, who moves to Melbourne and becomes involved in a relationship with her boss. When Maya's parents come to Melbourne to stay with her,...	Random House Random House Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
Queensland Premier's Literary Awards Queensland Premier's Literary Awards The Queensland Premier's Literary Awards were inaugurated in 1999 and have grown to become a leading literary awards program within Australia, with $225,000 in prizemoney over 14 categories. One of Australia's richest prizes, top categories offer up to $25,000 for 1st prize.-Fiction Book...	Fiction	Richard Flanagan Richard Flanagan Richard Flanagan is a novelist from Tasmania, Australia.-Early life:Flanagan was born in Longford, Tasmania, in 1961, the fifth of six children. He is descended from Irish convicts transported to Van Diemen's Land in the 1840s. His father is a survivor of the Burma Death Railway. One of his three...	Wanting	Random House Random House Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
Victorian Premier's Literary Award Victorian Premier's Literary Award The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards were created by the Victorian Governmentwith the aim of raising the profile of contemporary creative writing and Australia's publishing industry....	Fiction	Christos Tsiolkas Christos Tsiolkas -Biography:He was born and grew up in Melbourne and was educated at Blackburn High School and the University of Melbourne where he completed an Arts Degree in 1987. www.austlit.edu.au. Retrieved 2007-07-22. He edited the student newspaper Farrago in 1988....	The Slap	Allen & Unwin Allen & Unwin Allen & Unwin, formerly a major British publishing house, is now an independent book publisher and distributor based in Australia. The Australian directors have been the sole owners of the Allen & Unwin name since effecting a management buy out at the time the UK parent company, Unwin Hyman, was...

Science Fiction

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
Shadows Award Australian Shadows Award The Australian Shadows Award is an annual literary award established by the Australian Horror Writers Association in 2005 to honour the best published work of horror fiction written or edited by an Australian...		Lee Battersby Lee Battersby Lee Battersby is an Australian author of science fiction, fantasy, and horror fiction. His story "Carrying The God" made him the first Western Australian winner in the Writers of the Future Competition in 2002, and was awarded the 2003 Ditmar Award for Best New Talent...	"The Claws of Native Ghosts"	The Beast Within, ed. Matt Hults

Non-Fiction

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
National Biography Award National Biography Award The National Biography Award, established in Australia in 1996, is awarded for the best published work of biographical or autobiographical writing by an Australian. It aims "to encourage the highest standards of writing biography and autobiography and to promote public interest in those genres". It...		Ann Blainey	I Am Melba	Black Inc.