2020 in Australian literature

This is a list of historical events and publications of Australian literature during 2020.

Major publications

Literary fiction

Children's and young adult fiction

  • K.M. Allan – Blackbirch: The Beginning
  • Sarah Allen – Busy Beaks
  • Davina Bell – The End of the World Is Bigger than Love
  • Danielle Binks – The Year the Maps Changed
  • Belinda Crawford – Cold Between Stars
  • Katya de Becerra – Oasis
  • Alex Dyson – When It Drops
  • Sarah Epstein – Deep Water
  • Alison Evans – Euphoria Kids
  • Zana Fraillon – The Lost Soul Atlas
  • Jane Godwin – When Rain Turns to Snow
  • Kate Gordon – Aster's Good, Right Things
  • Sophie Gonzalesv Only Mostly Devastated
  • Bernadette Green – Who's Your Real Mum?
  • Libby Hathorn and Lisa Hathorn-Jarman – No! Never!
  • Eliza Henry-Jones – How to Grow a Family Tree
  • Gina Inverarity – Snow
  • Kay Kerr – Please Don't Hug Me
  • Will Kostakis
    • Rebel Gods
    • The Greatest Hit
  • Jeremy Lachlan – Jane Doe and the Key of All Souls
  • Ellie Marney – None Shall Sleep
  • Anna McGregor – Anemone Is Not The Enemy
  • Heidi McKinnon – There's No Such Thing
  • Kate McMahon – Sea of Gratitude
  • Cath Moore – Metal Fish, Falling Snow
  • Anna Morgan – Before the Beginning
  • Jaclyn Moriarty – The Stolen Prince of Cloudburst
  • Sally Murphy – Worse Things
  • Katrina Nannestad – We Are Wolves
  • Christie Nieman – Where We Begin
  • Garth Nix – The Left-Handed Booksellers of London
  • Poppy Nwosu – Taking Down Evelyn Tait
  • Kate O'Donnell – This One is Ours
  • Kirli Saunders – Bindi
  • Helen Scheuerer – Dawn of Mist
  • Astrid Scholte – The Vanishing Deep
  • Briony Stewart – We Love You, Magoo
  • Shaun Tan, – Dog
  • Jessica Townsend – Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow
  • Lisa Walker – The Girl with the Gold Bikini
  • Anna Whateley – Peta Lyre's Rating Normal
  • Sue Whiting – The Book of Chance
  • Bonnie Wynne – The Ninth Sorceress

Crime

Science Fiction and Fantasy

Poetry

Non-fiction

Awards and honours

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

Lifetime achievement

Award Author
Patrick White Award[1] Gregory Day

Literary

Award Author Title Publisher
ALS Gold Medal[2] Charmaine Papertalk Green Nganajungu Yagu Cordite Press
Colin Roderick Award[3] Sally Young Paper Emperors: The Rise of Australia’s Newspaper Empires NewSouth Publishing
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[4] Tara June Winch The Yield Penguin Random House
Stella Prize[5] Jess Hill See What You Made Me Do Black Inc
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards[6][7] S. Shakthidharan, with Eamon Flack Counting and Cracking Belvoir and Co-Curious

Fiction

National

Award Author Title Publisher
The Australian/Vogel Literary Award[8] K. M. Kruimink A Treacherous Country Allen & Unwin
Barbara Jefferis Award[9] Lucy Treloar Wolfe Island Pan Macmillan
Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Fiction[10] Favel Parrett There Was Still Love Hachette
Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Debut Fiction[10] Suzanne Daniel Allegra in Three Parts Pan Macmillan
Miles Franklin Literary Award[11] Tara June Winch The Yield Penguin Random House
Prime Minister's Literary Awards[12] Tara June Winch The Yield Penguin Random House
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[13] Tara June Winch The Yield Penguin Random House
Queensland Literary Awards[14] Mirandi Riwoe Stone Sky Gold Mountain University of Queensland Press
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards[6][7] Christos Tsiolkas Damascus Allen & Unwin

Children and Young Adult

National

Award Category Author Title Publisher
Children's Book of the Year Award[15] Older Readers Vikki Wakefield This Is How We Change the Ending Text Publishing
Younger Readers Pip Harry The Little Wave University of Queensland Press
Picture Book Chris McKimmie I Need a Parrot Ford Street
Early Childhood Frances Watts My Friend Fred Allen & Unwin
Eve Pownall Award for Information Books Bruce Pascoe Young Dark Emu: A truer history Magabala Books
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[13] Children's Lian Tanner & Jonathan Bentley Ella and the Ocean Allen & Unwin
Young People's Karen Foxlee Lenny's Book of Everything Allen & Unwin
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards[6][7] Young Adult Fiction Helena Fox How It Feels to Float Pan Macmillan Australia

Crime and Mystery

National

Award Category Author Title Publisher
Davitt Award[16] Novel Meg Mundell The Trespassers University of Queensland Press
Young adult novel Astrid Scholte Four Dead Queens Allen & Unwin
Children's novel Jenny Blackford The Girl in the Mirror Eagle Books
True crime Adele Ferguson Banking Bad: Whistleblowers. Corporate cover-ups. One Journalist's Fight for the Truth HarperCollins
Debut novel Susan Hurley Eight Lives Affirm Press
Readers' choice Dervla McTiernan The Scholar HarperCollins
Emma Viskic Darkness for Light Echo Publishing
Ned Kelly Award[17] Novel Christian White The Wife and the Widow Affirm Press
First novel Natalie Conyer Present Tense Clan Destine Press
True crime Dan Box Bowraville Viking Books

Science fiction

Award Category Author Title Publisher
Ditmar Award[18] Novel Gillian Polack The Year of the Fruit Cake IFWG Publishing
Best Short Fiction Rivqa Rafael "Whom My Soul Loves"

Non-Fiction

Award Category Author Title Publisher
National Biography Award[19] Biography Patrick Mullins Tiberius with a Telephone: The life and stories of William McMahon Scribe Publications
Indie Book Awards Book of the Year[10] Non-Fiction Archie Roach Tell Me Why Simon and Schuster Australia
Illustrated Non-Fiction Paul Byrnes The Lost Boys Affirm Press
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[13] Non-Fiction Patrick Mullins Tiberius with a Telephone: The Life and Stories of William McMahon Scribe Publications
New South Wales Premier's History Awards Australian History James Dunk Bedlam at Botany Bay NewSouth Publishing[20]
Community and Regional History Callum Clayton-Dixon Surviving New England: A History of Aboriginal Resistance and Resilience Through the First Forty Years of Colonial Apocalypse Nēwara Aboriginal Corporation[21]
General History Kate Fullagar The Warrior, the Voyager, and the Artist: Three Lives in an Age of Empire Yale University Press[22]
Queensland Literary Awards[14] Non-Fiction Joe Gorman Heartland: How Rugby League Explains Queensland University of Queensland Press
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards[6][7] Non-Fiction Christina Thompson Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia HarperCollins

Poetry

Award Author Title Publisher
Anne Elder Award (joint winners)[23] Cham Zhi Yi blur by the Subbed In
Gareth Sion Jenkins Recipes for the Disaster Five Islands Press
Mary Gilmore Award[24] Thom Sullivan Carte Blanche Vagabond Press
Prime Minister's Literary Awards[12] Omar Sakr The Lost Arabs University of Queensland Press
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[13] Peter Boyle Enfolded in the Wings of a Great Darkness Vagabond Press
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards[6][7] Charmaine Papertalk Green Nganajungu Yagu Cordite

Drama

Award Category Author Title
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[13] Script Kylie Boltin Missing
Jacquelin Perske The Cry, Episode 2
Play S. Shakthidharan Counting and Cracking

Deaths

See also

References

  1. ^ "Day wins Patrick White Literary Award". Books+Publishing. 30 November 2020. Archived from the original on 29 November 2020. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
  2. ^ "ALS Gold Medal — Previous Winners". Association for the Study of Australian Literature. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  3. ^ "Colin Roderick Award — Other Winners". James Cook University. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
  4. ^ Evans, Kate Evans (26 April 2020). "Novel celebrating Wiradjuri language wins Book of the Year at major literary awards". ABC News. Retrieved 4 February 2024.
  5. ^ Convery, Stephanie (14 April 2020). "Jess Hill wins $50,000 Stella prize for See What You Made Me Do, book investigating domestic violence". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  6. ^ a b c d e "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2020". The Wheeler Centre. Archived from the original on 4 March 2020. Retrieved 25 March 2020.
  7. ^ a b c d e "Christos Tsiolkas' 'Damascus' wins best fiction at VPLAs". Books+Publishing. 11 February 2020. Archived from the original on 15 February 2020. Retrieved 25 March 2020.
  8. ^ "'A Treacherous Country' wins 2020 Vogel". Books+Publishing. 20 April 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
  9. ^ ""Barbara Jefferis Award"". Australian Society of Authors. Retrieved 20 January 2024.
  10. ^ a b c ""Indie Book Awards - Winners 2020"". Australian Independent Booksellers. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
  11. ^ "Winch wins 2020 Miles Franklin for 'The Yield'". Books+Publishing. 16 July 2020. Archived from the original on 16 July 2020. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  12. ^ a b "Prime Minister's Literary Awards 2020 winners announced". Books+Publishing. 10 December 2020. Archived from the original on 9 December 2020. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  13. ^ a b c d e Evans, Kate Evans (26 April 2020). "Novel celebrating Wiradjuri language wins Book of the Year at major literary awards". ABC News. Archived from the original on 26 April 2020. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
  14. ^ a b Kim, Sharnie (4 September 2020). "Book about rugby league takes out richest prize in Queensland Literary Awards". ABC News. Archived from the original on 4 September 2020. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  15. ^ "CBCA Book of the Year 2020 winners announced". Books+Publishing. 16 October 2020. Archived from the original on 17 October 2020. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
  16. ^ "Davitt Awards 2020 winners announced". Books+Publishing. 28 September 2020. Archived from the original on 28 October 2020. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
  17. ^ "Ned Kelly Awards 2020 winners announced". Books+Publishing. 15 October 2020. Archived from the original on 20 October 2020. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
  18. ^ "2020 Ditmar Winners". Locus Online. 21 September 2020. Archived from the original on 25 September 2020. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  19. ^ "'Tiberius with a Telephone' wins National Biography Award". Books+Publishing. 31 August 2020. Archived from the original on 5 September 2020. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  20. ^ "Australian History Prize". State Library of NSW. 25 March 2020. Archived from the original on 25 September 2020. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  21. ^ "NSW Community and Regional History Prize". State Library of NSW. 2 April 2020. Archived from the original on 25 September 2020. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  22. ^ "General History Prize". State Library of NSW. 2 April 2020. Archived from the original on 25 September 2020. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  23. ^ "Cham, Jenkins named joint winners of Anne Elder poetry award". Books+Publishing. 7 May 2020. Archived from the original on 7 May 2020. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  24. ^ "Mary Gilmore Award". Association for the Study of Australian Literature. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
  25. ^ "Alexander Frater, award-winning author whose book Chasing the Monsoon became a classic work of Anglo-Indian literature". The Telegraph. 27 March 2020. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  26. ^ "Timoshenko Aslanides". AustLit: Discover Australian Stories. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  27. ^ Carmody, Broede (21 January 2020). "Great human': Tributes flow for YA author Steph Bowe". Sydney Morning-Herald.
  28. ^ Romei, Stephen (2 April 2020). "Australian poet Bruce Dawe dies, aged 90". The Australian. News Limited. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  29. ^ "Vale Judith Clarke". Books+Publishing. 20 May 2020. Archived from the original on 13 June 2020. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
  30. ^ "Andrew Peter Riemer – Death Notice". The Sydney Morning Herald. 13 June 2020. Archived from the original on 20 September 2021. Retrieved 20 September 2021.
  31. ^ Moran, Robert. "Award-winning author Jesse Blackadder dies, aged 56". Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  32. ^ "Obituary - Elizabeth Harrower - Obituaries Australia". oa.anu.edu.au. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
  33. ^ "Barbara Ker Wilson". My Tributes. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
  34. ^ "Ania Walwicz Death Notice - Melbourne, Victoria | The Age". tributes.theage.com.au. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
  35. ^ Idato, Michael (6 November 2020). "60 minutes trailblazer and legendary TV producer Gerald Stone dead". The Age. Retrieved 6 November 2020.
  36. ^ FitzSimons, Peter (14 November 2020). "Vale Greg Growden, you will be long remembered". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  37. ^ "Mungo MacCallum". AustLit: Discover Australian Stories. The University of Queensland. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  38. ^ Ripley, Amy (27 January 2021). "Mills & Boon author sold 71 million copies worldwide". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
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