1989 in Australian literature explained

This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1989.

Events

• Peter Carey won the Miles Franklin Award for Oscar and Lucinda

Major publications

Novels

• Jessica Anderson — Taking Shelter
• Mena Calthorpe — The Plain of Ala^[1]
• Bryce Courtenay — The Power of One
• Tom Flood — Oceana Fine
• Peter Goldsworthy — Maestro
• Elizabeth Jolley — My Father's Moon
• Tom Keneally — Towards Asmara
• Amy Witting — I for Isobel^[2]

Short story anthologies

• Liam Davison — The Shipwreck Party^[3]
• Brian Matthews — Quickening and Other Stories^[4]

Crime and mystery

• Kerry Greenwood — Cocaine Blues, the first in the Phryne Fisher series.
• Jennifer Rowe — Murder by the Book^[5]

Science fiction and fantasy

• Judith Clarke — The Boy on the Lake : Stories^[6]
• Greg Egan – "The Cutie"
• Rosaleen Love — The Total Devotion Machine and Other Stories^[7]

Children's and young adult fiction

• Graeme Base — The Eleventh Hour
• Morris Gleitzman — Two Weeks with the Queen^[8]

Poetry

• Robert Adamson — The Clean Dark^[9]
• Dorothy Hewett — A Tremendous World in Her Head: Selected Poems^[10]
• Dorothy Porter — Driving Too Fast^[11]
• Peter Porter — Possible Worlds
• Peter Skrzynecki — "Night Swim"^[12]

Drama

• Nick Enright — Daylight Saving
• Jenny Kemp — Call of the Wild^[13]
• Peta Murray
  • Spitting Chips^[14]
  • Wallflowering^[15]
• David Williamson — Top Silk^[16]

Non-fiction

• Jill Ker Conway — The Road from Coorain
• Adam Shoemaker — Black Words, White Page: Aboriginal Literature 1929-1988^[17]
• Elisabeth Wynhausen — Manly Girls^[18]

Awards and honours

• Mary Durack, for "service to the community and literature"^[19]
• Les Murray (poet), for "service to Australian literature"^[20]
• Thomas Shapcott, for "service to Australian literature and to arts administration"^[21]
• Gwen Harwood, for "service to literature, particularly as a poet and librettist"^[22]
• Max Harris (poet), for "service to literature"^[23]
• Clement Semmler, for "service to Australian literature"^[24]
• John Morrison (writer), for "service to literature"^[25]

Lifetime achievement

Award	Author
Christopher Brennan Award[26]	Chris Wallace-Crabbe
Patrick White Award[27]	Thea Astley

Literary

Award	Author	Title	Publisher
The Age Book of the Year Award[28]	Marsden Hordern	Mariners are Warned!: John Lort Stokes and HMS Beagle in Australia 1837-1843	Melbourne University Press
ALS Gold Medal[29]	Frank Moorhouse	Forty-Seventeen	Viking Books
Colin Roderick Award[30]	Chris Symons	John Bishop : A Life for Music

Fiction

National

Award	Author	Title	Publisher
Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature[32]	Not awarded
The Age Book of the Year Award	Elizabeth Jolley	My Father's Moon	Viking
The Australian/Vogel Literary Award[33]	Mandy Sayer	Mood Indigo	Allen and Unwin
Miles Franklin Award[34]	Peter Carey	Oscar and Lucinda	University of Queensland Press
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[35]	Helen Hodgman	Broken Words	Penguin Books Australia
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards[36]	Rodney Hall	Captivity Captive	Farrar Straus and Giroux

Poetry

Award	Author	Title	Publisher
Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature	Not awarded
Anne Elder Award[37]	Mark Miller	Conversing with Stones	Five Islands Press
Grace Leven Prize for Poetry[38]		A Tremendous World in Her Head	Dangaroo Press
Mary Gilmore Award[39]	Alex Skovron	The Rearrangement	Melbourne University Press
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards	John Tranter	Under Berlin	University of Queensland Press
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards	Gwen Harwood	Bone Scan	Angus and Robertson

Children and Young Adult

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
Children's Book of the Year Award	Older Readers[40]	Gillian Rubinstein	Beyond the Labyrinth	Hyland House
	Picture Book	Graeme Base[41]	The Eleventh Hour
		Allan Baillie & Jane Tanner[42]	Drac and the Gremlin
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards	Young People's Literature	Mary Pershall	You Take the High Road	Penguin
Victorian Premier's Prize for Young Adult Fiction		Caroline Macdonald	The Lake at the End of the World	Hodder & Stoughton

Drama

Award	Category	Author	Title
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards	FilmScript	Not awarded
	Radio Script	Alana Valentine	The Story of Anger Lee Bredenza
	Television Script	Bob Ellis and Stephen Ramsay	The True Believers
	Play	Stephen Sewell	Hate

Non-fiction

Award	Author	Title	Publisher
Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature	Not awarded
The Age Book of the Year Award	Marsden C. Hordern	Mariners are Warned!: John Lort Stokes and HMS Beagle in Australia 1837-1843	Melbourne University Press
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards	Maslyn Williams	His Mother's Country	Melbourne University Press
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards	Oskar Spate	Paradise Found and Lost	ANU Press

Births

A list, ordered by date of birth (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of births in 1989 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of death.

• 2 June — Will Kostakis, author and journalist^[43]

Deaths

A list, ordered by date of death (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of deaths in 1989 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of birth.

• 3 June – Connie Christie, children's writer/illustrator, photographer and commercial artist (born 1908 in England)^[44]
• 16 August – Donald Friend, artist and diarist (born 1914)^[45]

See also

• 1989 in Australia
• 1989 in literature
• 1989 in poetry
• List of years in literature
• List of years in Australian literature

Notes and References

1. Web site: Austlit — The Plain of Ala by Mena Calthorpe . Austlit. 27 November 2023.
2. Web site: Austlit — I for Isobel by Amy Witting . Austlit. 27 November 2023.
3. Web site: Austlit — The Shipwreck Party by Liam Davison . Austlit. 21 December 2023.
4. Web site: Austlit — Quickening and Other Stories by Brian Matthews . Austlit. 21 December 2023.
5. Web site: Austlit — Murder by the Book By Jennifer Rowe . Austlit. 21 December 2023.
6. Web site: Austlit — The Boy on the Lake : Stories by Judith Clarke . Austlit. 21 December 2023.
7. Web site: Austlit — The Total Devotion Machine and Other Stories by Rosaleen Love . Austlit. 21 December 2023.
8. Web site: Austlit — Two Weeks with the Queen by Morris Gleitzman . Austlit. 21 December 2023.
9. Web site: Austlit — The Clean Dark by Robert Adamson . Austlit. 21 December 2023.
10. Web site: Austlit — A Tremendous World in Her Head: Selected Poems by Dorothy Hewett . Austlit. 21 December 2023.
11. Web site: Austlit — Driving Too Fast by Dorothy Porter . Austlit. 21 December 2023.
12. Web site: Austlit — "Night Swim" by Peter Skrzynecki . Austlit. 21 December 2023.
13. Web site: Austlit — Call of the Wild by Jenny Kemp . Austlit. 21 December 2023.
14. Web site: Austlit — Spitting Chips by Peta Murphy . Austlit. 21 December 2023.
15. Web site: Austlit — Wallflowering by Peta Murphy . Austlit. 21 December 2023.
16. Web site: Austlit — Top Silk by David Williamson . Austlit. 21 December 2023.
17. Web site: Austlit — Black Words, White Page: Aboriginal Literature 1929-1988 by Adam Shoemaker . Austlit. 21 December 2023.
18. Web site: Austlit — Manly Girls by Elisabeth Wynhausen . Austlit. 21 December 2023.
19. Web site: Dame Mary Durack, DBE. honours.pmc.gov.au. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20181103210113/https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/870162 . 3 November 2018 . 2019-12-24.
20. Web site: Leslie Allan Murray. honours.pmc.gov.au. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20190506014747/https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/870200 . 6 May 2019 . 2019-12-24.
21. Web site: Thomas William Shapcott. honours.pmc.gov.au. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20191224175419/https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/870347 . 24 December 2019 . 2019-12-24.
22. Web site: Gwendoline Nessie Harwood. honours.pmc.gov.au. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20191224175420/https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/870299 . 24 December 2019 . 2019-12-24.
23. Web site: Maxwell Henley Harris. honours.pmc.gov.au. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20191224175418/https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/870128 . 24 December 2019 . 2019-12-24.
24. Web site: Dr Clement William Semmler, OBE. honours.pmc.gov.au. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20191224175420/https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/869727 . 24 December 2019 . 2019-12-24.
25. Web site: John Gordon Morrison. honours.pmc.gov.au. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20191224193046/https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/869840 . 24 December 2019 . 2019-12-24.
26. Web site: "Chris Wallace-Crabbe" . The Poetry Society. 13 September 2023.
27. Web site: Austlit — Patrick White Award - Past Winners . Austlit. 8 September 2023.
28. Web site: Repaying old debt to sailors pays off for first-time writer" . The Age, 2 December 1989, p4. 28 May 2024. .
29. Web site: ALS Gold Medal - Previous Winners . Association for the Study of Australian Literature. 10 November 2023.
30. Web site: Colin Roderick Award - Other Winners . James Cook University. 10 November 2023.
31. Web site: Commonwealth Writers' Prize Regional Winners 1987-2007 . Commonwealth Foundation. 17 January 2024.
32. Web site: State Library of South Australia. Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature – Past Literary Award Winners. 18 April 2024.
33. Web site: Austlit — The Australian/Vogel National Literary Award 1989. Austlit. 21 December 2023.
34. Web site: Austlit — Oscar and Lucinda - Awards . Austlit. 14 September 2023.
35. Web site: Hodgman wins State literary prize. Sydney Morning Herald, 5 September 1989, p10. 3 May 2024. .
36. Web site: The lucky seven out of 249 . Sydney Morning Herald, 19 September 1989, p10 . 26 April 2024. .
37. Web site: Austlit — Anne Elder Award 1989-91 . Austlit. 11 February 2024.
38. Web site: Austlit — A Tremendous World in Her Head — Awards . Austlit. 23 December 2023.
39. Web site: Mary Gilmore Award . . 8 February 2024.
40. Web site: Austlit — Beyond the Labyrinth — Awards . Austlit. 23 December 2023.
41. Web site: Austlit — The Eleventh hour . Austlit. 23 December 2023.
42. Web site: Austlit — Drac and the Gremlin — Awards . Austlit. 23 December 2023.
43. Web site: Will Kostakis . Austlit. 29 May 2024.
44. Web site: Connie Christie (1908-1989). 2023-09-14 . AustLit: Discover Australian Stories . The University of Queensland.
45. Web site: Donald Friend (1914-1989). 2023-09-14 . AustLit: Discover Australian Stories . The University of Queensland.